Residents of Collingwood waterfront condominiums want to put up a gate to keep out trespassers.
According to a deputation made to council’s development and operations committee, the issue of trespassing is worse than ever since COVID-19 hit.
“There’s a meteoric rise in the number of trespassers since COVID,” said Daniel Whaley, who said his presentation on Monday night was on behalf of Lighthouse Point, Wyldewood Cove, Mariner’s Haven, Blue Shores, and Dockside condominium communities.
Whaley said they are seeing illegal dumping and people have been cycling through the communities as well as going to the beaches - all of which, he noted, is private property.
He said people have become angry, and in some cases nearly physically violent, when approached and asked to leave. Residents have called the police in these instances.
Whaley said Lighthouse Point condominium owners pay a security guard to staff the gate and ask people who they are and where they are from, only permitting entry to residents and their guests.
He said the condo group has paid a security guard to operate the gate on long weekends for “several years” at “great cost.”
“When I purchased at Lighthouse Point [in 2001] it was always going to be a gated community,” said Whaley.
However, the town’s zoning bylaw prohibits gates at entrances to residential condominium corporations.
Whaley said the bylaw may have been meant to encourage social inclusion and allow emergency access when it was passed, but argued neither of those reasons are valid any longer.
“Social distancing, not social inclusion, is what we practise today,” said Whaley.
Lighthouse point has several signs indicating private property and stating no trespassing.
“When local councils close and limit the use of parks and beaches … less than law-abiding citizens seek alternatives and we become their public park,” lamented Whaley. “Our facilities are paid for by and are for residents of Lighthouse Point.”
He said in addition to illegal dumping and use of the beach, there are people walking dogs on the private roads and trails leaving the bags of dog poop behind on the ground.
“Simply because they don’t live here and they don’t care,” said Whaley.
Fire Chief Ross Parr said gates are a “touchy issue” for him, and he’s had to break down four during his 37-year career in firefighting.
“If we don’t have immediate access, it’s a big concern for me,” said Parr. “If it prevents me from being able to respond in a timely manner, then that is an issue.”
Whaley argued new technology responds to emergency sirens by opening the gates, and it could be tested regularly.
“What works one day may not work the next,” said Parr.
“Then that’s when you crash through the gate,” said Whaley, noting the condo corporation could get insurance to “cover the scratch on the bumper.”
Whaley said council should either provide residents of the condominium communities with a rebate on their taxes for the services they don’t use (garbage pickup for example) or reverse the existing bylaw to allow for a gate.
“The bylaw is the furthest thing from being fair to all concerned,” he said. “Private property is private property.”
The development and operations standing committee opted to defer discussion and decision on the matter until the Sept. 21 council meeting at the suggestion of Mayor Brian Saunderson.
He said it would leave time for staff to provide comments on the long- and short-term effects of reversing the ban on gates for residential condominium corporations.
