1/27/2009
Welcome to our interactive website. We are using this site to enlist support for creating a park along all of Cobourg's shoreline, from the water filtration plant to Factory Creek. Only a park can preserve this public right of way for future generations, and remove the fences and no trespassing signs that cover the West Beach. We invite your comments and invite you to leave an e mail address to join our list of friends and supporters. Please comment by clicking on the comment link below or email us at cobourgbeachsociety@gmail.com
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THIS IS A BRILIANT IDEA! finally someone is standing up for the rights of the citizens of Cobourg to enjoy the PUBLIC beach. Go Cobourg Neach Society GO!!!!
ReplyDelete*Beach*
ReplyDeleteI grew up walking down to the west beach enjoying sunsets, skipping rocks, playing around and feeling welcome! Now i feel rushed when i walk through there and very much unwelcome and sure many people feel that way. I am happy there are citizens of Cobourg who are willing to stand up for this public property. I hope this idea gets spread through the community like wildfire. We want our public beach BACK!!!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a GREAT idea!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Cobourg Beach Society will be making a presentation to Cobourg town council on June 1 at 7 pm in the Council room. Your support would be really appreciated. Only if we have a good turnout will council realize that we are serious.
ReplyDeleteCount me in for June 1st. I will post this and forward right away. Vital to make it PUBLIC area for all to enjoy for generations to come as well.
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Finaly we can remove the fencing from around a vacant lot which is going used.
ReplyDeleteClearly this needs to make its way to Facebook for greater exposure. It truly is just so wrong that people can have a 'fluctuating' property line of sorts...the water does move back and forth afterall! Who else has that right? It was awful reading about the plight of the 'out of town' visitor having met up with a crazed 'beach property owner'. Doesn't look good on Cobourg as a 'feel good town' now does it??
ReplyDeleteCobourg Beach Society...now that's a concept I can warm up to. There needs to be a workable solution to this problem. Without one, I could be arrested for Malicious Strolling...
ReplyDeleteThanks to all of you for your comments. You may have seen the front page article in the Northumberland News-- this issue is getting some attention. We are now on Facebook, by the way, and at last count had 170 members there. We really appreciate your support-- keep those comments coming and please tell your friends! See you at Cobourg Council Monday June 1 at 7 pm. Cobourg's beaches-- for all, for ever!!
ReplyDeleteThe beach is very wide these days, giving the alleged "owners" a huge area of property. Do they pay appropriate real estate taxes for all this fabulous beachfront property, or are they getting a steal when it comes to taxes?
ReplyDeleteI walked this beach every day all year for 25 years and enjoyed the peace and tranquility. My walk woud start from Monks Cove- Peace Park-West Beach-Harbor Front-Victoria Beach-up the back streets to Wilmont Street and than follow the same route back home. I never encountered one problem with anyone until the town built the half ass boardwalk along the West Beach. I blame the town for the messs they have created along the West Beach. We now encounter not only fences but a lady or two who chase behind you with comments-you are trepassing-you should not be on this beach, I'm going to phone the police! There is a Marine Law that gives people the right to walk along the beach within 30' of the waters edge?
ReplyDeleteI did venture to the tax office to investigate the property taxes these homeowners are now paying for all this extra land! To my surprise they are paying not much more than what I pay for non waterfront property and a very small lot!
I have asked several times why this issue of gaining extra land with no increase in property taxes has not been a feature story in any of our newspapers!
As you walk along this beach and look up at each home along this area you can definitly notice the original property lines of each owner. These owners were very lucky to have such a glorious gift of the extra wide beach given to them because of the creation of the Cobourg Harbour-the man made inlet likely paid for by the Cobourg taxpayers. If the inlet was destroyed would these owners not see the return of very high water levels reaching their original property lines???
It is very sad when I walk along this west beach with my year old Grandson to have a Lady? running after you shouting get off our beach!! Very sad indeed!
My favourite spot in the entire world is sitting at the point where Lake Ontario and the pond of peace park meet. I would go there as my sanctuary. Think. Write poetry. Watch the sunset. Now it's considered trespassing to get to and for what? So people can stake a claim on some sand? Please. Go back to the city and leave our friendly little town alone!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, I understand where the property owners are coming from. If you just take a look at the west boardwalk as it is there's garbage everywhere and burnt logs. I live less than a 2 minute walk from this beach and I frequent it for many reasons. The people who put up no trespassing signs or even worse a big fence just don't want this garbage on their properties, I think if Cobourg would agree to hire some staff or use some existing staff to clean these areas everyday the property owners really wouldn't mind sharing their waterfront view. You have to make this beneficial for the public and the property owner or there will never be a common agreement. Also by creating jobs for people in the community, especially highschool student jobs, we would be investing in our micro-economy in Cobourg.
ReplyDeleteHi Alexander. Thanks for your comment. I am down at the beach frequently and have not seen " garbage everywhere," nor the " burnt logs"you mention. Even so, the Cobourg Beach Society wishes to address property owners' concerns by being part of a team that will keep the beach clean. Society's decisions should not be dictated by the littering yahoos. Most people are responsible!
ReplyDeletethe history section of a cobourg paper Today
ReplyDeleteIn History..(John Jolie) June 11, 1847
"Years after the event, it was discovered that explorer JOHN FRANKLIN perished in the Artic. It took several years to discover what happened to him and his crew. Franklin had spent a weekend a few years earlier, camping at the mouth of Factory Creek in Cobourg. Almost a century later, Cobourg explorer, Lachrin Burwash discovered evidences of the Franklin Party in the Artic.......HISTORICAL PLAQUE
It seems ridiculously selfish that someone would bother to make the effort to mark their property as no tresspassing in this instance.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in Cobourg for over 2 decades, many of those years I frequented the mouth of Cobourg Creek. I can't recall anybody abusing the property outright.
If the town would have a summer student or two spend an afternoon once a week in the area cleaning up, perhaps the landowners would relax a little.....
I to have recently had a run in with the territorial property owners west of Ontario St. Myself, my husband and my two young boys went down to the end of Ontario St. one day last week, to skip stones. While we were down there, I remembered the article from the paper and was relaying it to my husband(I didn't pay attention to the exact location of the story in the paper, just knew that is was down at the rocky beach). The fog started to roll in and the clouds were very low, my kids thought this looked really cool, and I asked my 5 year old if he wanted to walk through a cloud. And then we saw her coming, immdidately I presumed that this was the same women that was in the article and realized that I must have stepped over "the line". We were right at the waters edge and she walked all the way down to us and told us it was private property and that we had just walked by two signs that said so. She then walked back to her house and sat and watched us for the remainder of our time there, WOW! I would love to see that this area be relinquished to the town so that people could actually walk along the beach without worrying about this lady, with too much time on her hands, coming out to bother them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your clear and forthright presentation to Cobourg Town Council. I was pleased to see the positive response from all of the Council members and their desire to try and find a resolution to all of the issues. On behalf of the Cobourg to Port Hope Waterfront Trail & Parks Committee I would like to reconfirm our support to the Cobourg Beach Society.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tim. We too were very pleased at the reception from Council. Let us hope that this issue stays on the front pages and does not vanish.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said: "I walked this beach every day all year for 25 years and enjoyed the peace and tranquility..."
ReplyDeleteMay 28, 2009 10:43 PM
Perhaps, then, someone should investigate the following:
"Prescriptive Easement:
Passage through the property of another, by long term usage without objection by the owner, which establishes precedence, which common law considers that a right has been established."
RB
I'm a kite flyer. In the summer time there's no room on the sand beach for us to kite in the water. There's almost enough room on the West beach but it would be great to have that extra space to roll out the lines without someone going ape**** on me. Go Beach!!
ReplyDeleteBucktop
People should be able to enjoy their property that they have paid for, without ever having to worry about people trying to take it away from them. There are public beaches and boat launches all right in our area. Why are people complaining? We should be thankful that we have these beautiful places to go. And if someone doesn't want you on their property, then stay off of it. Just because you want someting, doesn't mean you should get it. People have a right to protect their property and their rights. It should be illegal for people to gang up on others and try to take away what is theirs; (oh, wait--it is!). It appears you are trying to create some sort of mob mentality. Where people can just spout off any the silliest things that come to mind and because other people jump on board, you actually think you are entitled. Someone previously mentioned that property owners had previously not fenced their properties and that this should constitute a public right-of-way, well that would be a legal nightmare of a precident to set. That would mean everyone with an unfenced acerage could have people claiming their property is a right-of-way, or any unfenced front lawn for that matter. Do you really think people will stand for this? Becareful what you try to do to others, it might just happen to you.
ReplyDeleteJust a comment on that - this is not a private lake in the Muskokas we are debating here, but a public lake, Lake Ontario, that in fact belongs to the taxpayers of Ontario and Canada. You can own private lakeshore and chase people off, but not Lake Ontario. The question is where is the edge of Lake Ontario actually located? So anyone can go ahead and buy a cottage up north, if they want a "no tresspassing" sign on their beach. This one isn't theirs - it's ours. Pat Stanley
ReplyDeleteNot only does Lake Ontario belong to residents of Ontario and Canada, but its also an international waterway partially owned by the good ol' USA as well! Now I realize the area in question here is on our side, but still its important for our American friends and family to have acceess to the pebble beach too! I grew up in this town and I have many memories of long walks along the beach at the foot of my street with a lot of my family from the States. One of my Great Uncle Bob's favorite things to do was searching for holy stones while walking up and down the beach. He was really good at spotting them. I didn't realize until my Aunt Betty told me just yesterday that these little pebbles with holes in them symbolized "family" in Hebrew or something. It really made me think of all the time spent down there between my cousins and I, and I'm sure other families as well. The place really does have a special spiritual quality that brings us all together.
ReplyDeleteI very much like the concept of prescriptive easement as described by Rusty Brown. A lawyer in our group has proposed a similar idea, and I will be sending that on to the mayor and Councilor Miriam Mutton.
ReplyDeletePrescriptive easement rights trump property rights by the way!! Thanks Rusty!!
Thank you, Mr. Cairns. I was hoping someone would be in a position to pursue this approach.
ReplyDeleteI have a strong sentimental attachment to the West Beach, going back farther than I care to admit.
RB
Prescriptive easement may be the only way to go on this thorny issue - long term public usage conveys a kind of public ownership . This, along with the unique, and public, status of the Great Lakes shoreline, seems to make compelling argument that weakens the exclusivety of property rights in this case. If enough people want public access restored, and maintained through municipal authority, then Cobourg council has the obligation to act. But don't forget, owners still have rights to privacy and the maintenance of property values.
ReplyDeleteWow I really had no Idea this whole issue was happening at the West Beach until today. My plan was to soak up some sun, and enjoy a nice view. As I walked along the boardwalk to the west beach I noticed some new things I hadnt seen before. Other than the cramming in of more condos being built, I also noticed 'No Trespassing" sign along the beach...Confused and a little cocky I kept on walking to the spot I had in mind: where the beach meets the river thru Peace Park.
ReplyDeleteLike clock-work, within feet of me stepping past these no trespassing signs a lady starts to approach. My first impression was that she was just enjoying the beach as I was but then the little lady came right up to me. From about 10 feet away I say good afternoon with a friendly smile on my face. The reply I got was you are trespassing you just went by 3 signs.
It was news to me I wasnt allowed to walk along the beach as I had done peacefully for over 10 years. So politely I apologized and explained how I was trying to get to the spot where the river meets the lake. The lady says to walk down to Pebble Beach area. Well I didnt know who this lady was and I didnt really care so I kept on my way to the beautiful spot to tan and relax and this lady walked along side me with constant remarks such as " why waste your time here?" and " you must be pretty pathetic to come from Toronto to come to cobourg to sit by the lake". So I kept ignoring her and set a towel on the sand and got my tan on. The lady left for a few minutes and came back with a camera taking pictures of me for about 5 minutes. After that my mood was ruined and just left in amazement as to how crazy this lady is.
Thanks for ruining my day lady, I think you need to get a life and stop worrying about others.
Wow - what a staggering sense of entitlement some people have. Perhaps I'll go for a jog through your backyard and maybe take the dog with me! Maybe I'll stop for a few hours and take photos, compose some poetry or paint a watercolour!
ReplyDeleteMany of the deeds to waterfront property give ownership of the "water rights" several yards into lake Ontario. Private property is private property. "No trespassing" signs should be unecessary - because people would respect the fence and keep off.
Waterfront Property owners have rights too - and yes we pay a boatload of tax in this beautiful town.
I was down on the boardwalk today - and there is quite a bit of litter.
I bought my property with clean title and paid a premium for the PRIVATE frontage. There is no easement and no public access - period.
Is "Bucktop" for real?
ReplyDelete"I'm a kite flyer. In the summer time there's no room on the sand beach for us to kite in the water. There's almost enough room on the West beach but it would be great to have that extra space to roll out the lines without someone going ape**** on me. Go Beach!!"
Yeah go for it - take my land bought with my hard earned dollars so that you can fly a kite on it. Lets have teenagers alcopops parties and bonfires too. Please make sure you present your ideas to council!
I walked on the "road to nowhere" yesterday. The boardwalk between Ontario and Bagot Sts - What a waste of all of our tax dollars. The Bagot St land has been offered for sale to council - but council (like the rest of you) want it for nothing.
Wow
ReplyDeleteyou guys post a picture of a private citizen - a tax paying property owner standing up for herself. You are correct - it is her beach and she is to be commended for being proactive.
How many of you are bravely confronting her? Is that 3 in the picture, with one of you holding the camera. Was the picture taken with her consent?
Shame on you. Does Mr Delanty really want to endorse the politics of envy?
On reflection I realized the photo was not what we are about and I have removed it. Although the lady in question has caused a lot of grief to people -- just read some of the comments of the importance of this beach to people --the photo was not consistent with what we are trying to do. We are trying to create a nature preserve that will deal with neighbour's concerns: this preserve will be patrolled by the town and fall under normal bylaws-- we don't want litter, parties, or broken glass either.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, anonymous, I sign my posts.
Mr Cairns - your actions speak volumes about who you are and what you do.
ReplyDeleteSome of us just want to go about our business quietly - but we will stand up to bullies when necessary.
Nice condoms and empty liquor bottles on the public access beach yesterday! Must have been quite a bonfire at the weekend. We are collecting our horror stories too.
Please read my comment more thoroughly as to what kind of nature preserve we want. I sign my posts and I do not lower myself to personal insults.
ReplyDeleteNice syringe and liquor bottles on the beach today respectfully you can't look after the public beach so much dog mess by the darcy st beach. Please stay off private lands. I will never spend a cent at meet at king st east and nor will many others
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