Parallel parking, and an ad hoc committee to sort out confusion over the preferred options for the cenotaph were some discussion points in Saugeen Shores Monday night.
The latest plans for Southampton’s High Street reconstruction project were presented by consultants R.J. Burnside to Saugeen Shores Committee of the Whole. It’s an infrastructure update project to address aging under the street infrastructure.
Council’s committee recommended some changes to the plan that was presented Monday night.
They opted for parallel parking at the end of High Street between Huron and Front Street on the north side. They also decided to have an ad hoc committee created to make a decision on potential changes to the cenotaph.
The first design, presented in the summer, showed a loss of 65 parking spaces. Monday’s revised design showed a loss of just four spaces. At Monday’s meeting councillors also decided to make parking on High Street parallel between Huron Street and Front Street (by the beach and the big flag) which represents a further loss of six parking spaces, making the total reduction of spaces 10.
The parallel parking was suggested by Councillor Cheryl Grace who said it was a privacy concern for a couple of houses located there which she argued shouldn’t have to put up with headlights shining in their houses. Councillor John Divinski agreed with Grace, saying it’s not in a business area of the street, and so he didn’t mind a loss of spaces, noting, “It’s going to cause a lot of grief, particularly in the summertime with lights shining into homes, granted it’s only two homes, but it’s homes.”
Councillor Dave Myette, disagreed, saying, “I just don’t get this privacy thing. If a car is angle parked or parallel parked, there’s still a car parked outside of your house,” adding, “It’s not like the car is going to sit there running with their lights shining in somebody’s living room. I just don’t buy that it’s a significant concern.”
He also noted, “I just don’t think it’s worth losing parking spots all year round. In the summertime, it doesn’t get dark until much later in the evening, but these are places that people go to park so that they can go to the other main attraction which is the beach. It’s not just about the downtown business area .It’s about people going down there and going to the beach. Lots of people. That’s where they go and they park and they access the beach from there.”
Myette noted headlights are everywhere, and drapes can be a solution to the issue.
Councillor Bud Halpin noted, people who lose parking spots by the beach will just end up parking in the business area spots.
A recorded vote was called, and parallel parking was the supported option.
Council has also decided to create an ad hoc committee to decide what to do with the cenotaph.
Vice Deputy Mayor Mike Myatt noted during the meeting, that while consultants said the preferred option for a redevelopment or repair of the cenotaph was to repair the existing cairn and cross, Myatt noted, earlier in the year, council had supported $250,000 for a new cenotaph design that included stone pillars.
He said, “I thought there were some good changes with that plan a year ago, only to find that’s really not what the Legion wants, which surprised me. I thought they did want that, dating back to 1984 and more recent discussions in the last five to ten years. So I’m confused now, because I thought we had the two stone column option, we’d made a decision around this council table to go with that, and now evidently that’s not what the community wants so I’m confused and we’re caught in a bind here. We’ve made a decision and now it’s undone, so to speak, with the consultant’s report. With the Survey numbers I’m seeing, it’s not what the community wants.”
He added, “We have to come to some kind of a compromise,” and recommended setting up a short-term ad hoc committee with appointees by the striking committee comprising of perhaps six to eight people some for the proposed new stone column option and some against, to examine how to go forward with the cenotaph. Myatt added, “I don’t know what all happened behind the scenes here, but to me it’s confusing for me a little bit. I think we need to bring those groups together somehow and mediate it.”
The committee supported a recommendation to repair the cairn and cross and to create an ad hoc committee to decide on a preferred design by summer of 2025.
Councillor Rachel Stack asked staff to explain the reason for the project with the aim of ensuring the community understands why the work is being planned.
CAO Kara Van Myall explained, “The project starts with the need for infrastructure replacement.” She added, “When we do that, we’re looking at how we put things back and we’re doing them in a better way or an improved way as many have mentioned tonight to improve the downtown atmosphere.”
Mayor Luke Charbonneau noted there is also new legislation since High Street was last designed decades ago. He says “We’re designing a street that was designed last a number of decades ago and we’re designing it in 2024 to last for several decades into the future. So we have to think about— there’s just been changes in the way streets are designed and changes in the laws that we have to design them to.”