Thank you so much for supporting the petition against the current development at Port Elgin Main Beach.

The petition has been edited and the plan now is to have it ready to send to Town Council and any other concerned parties. If anyone who signed the petition does not support the edited version, please reply in the comments requesting for your support to be removed. If you are still in support, no action is required.

The edited petition reads as follows:

Saugeen Shores Citizens Say No To Waterfront Development

This development by 2706913 Ontario Inc. at the Port Elgin Beach is extremely unpopular among a large percentage of the citizens of Saugeen Shores. In the Town survey of 2019, only 5% of the respondents listed an event space/banquet hall as an amenity that would bring them or their visitors to the beach (1).  In a survey conducted by the local Beach Preserver group in 2021, 77% of the respondents were full-time residents or owned property in the municipality. 81.25% voted against a banquet/event hall (2).

The building envelope is too large, the financial projections too vague, the footprint too damaging to the local landscape both ecologically and economically. The proposed development could potentially take away over 100 parking spaces from our beach lot, which is already not large and is always filled on summer weekends (3).  This will be damaging to our tourism industry. Far from bringing more people to the area, as some on Town Council have insisted, this ill-conceived idea will restrict visitors and residents alike from enjoying the waterfront. 

There are also severe ecological concerns and significant potential impacts on future water quality. The amount of sand that must be excavated and replaced with impenetrable foundations to support a massive two storey structure will not be without impact to the filtration of stormwater into the lake (4).  We are already struggling with erosion of the beach and contaminated water (5).  A closed beach will not have many visitors. We are a beach town. We cannot afford this mistake.

There has been no reasonable business plan shared with the public to justify this size of project at what has always been a seasonal destination (6). A 14 million dollar two storey restaurant complex in a town of 17,000 residents is mathematically inconceivable (7). There is no proof of concept. It is increasingly apparent that it was never a good idea, and there is no proof that the population of Saugeen Shores is in support of it. Most are in favour of revitalization, yes, but not this particular project. A single storey restaurant and marina store with less disturbance of the environment, would be more widely accepted. 

On February 24, 2025, the current Town Council approved this project for a deadline extension to September 24, 2026 in defiance of popular opinion. We ask that you take every measure possible to stop the current project moving forward.

Sincerely,
The Citizens of Saugeen Shores

Thank you to everyone for participating in these continued attempts to save the beach. This is a community I am proud to be a part of.