Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Splash Canyon's lack of planning causes Springwater Council to make a bad decision...

At the public meeting on July 13,local area residents expressed concern about the growing nuisance noise being created by weekend concerts at Splash Canyon on Nursery Road just north of Hwy 26 across from Springwater Park. The facility is zoned as a campground and water park. Through a stretch of the permitted uses, the owners argue the small concerts over the last two years are not really concerts but entertainment to the campground guests. Their own website says differently. The large proposed concert being sponsored by ROCK 95 on August 15 will be one of the largest concerts staged in the Barrie area since Molson Park closed its venue. It does require rezoning as the concert is a separate paid entry event from the park itself. Having a concert in the middle of a rural area is not a wise choice. Traffic congestion, parking and impact on local residents are significant. On paper the organizers have everything covered. Council members were surprised about the negative impact of noise from the small concerts over the last two years which caused them to rethink the temporary rezoning request for the large concert on August 15. Like myself, we who live in a rural area usually lack faith in the politicians and say little and grumble amongst ourselves until we boil over. At the public meeting it appeared there was a growing move to deny the rezoning request.
At the planning meeting on July 20 a number of unusual things were evident. First of all Splash Canyon were allowed to make another case with information not provided to area residents prior to the meeting. Secondly, delegations are allowed 10 minutes for their presentations. At this meeting Splash Canyon were allowed 45 minutes to make a new case. There was no motion to extend the time and were simply allowed to ramble on, a definite breach of the township's procedural bylaw. Unfortunately the area residents, not fully understanding the process were not present to discuss the new found information. Councillor Collins and Cowan stuck to their guns and continued to argue against such a large event in a rural setting. The main reason and one that was never answered was the lack of planning horizon that had created the pressure of time for a decision. A good business friend of mine has a great expression that should hold true in this situation, "Lack of Planning on your part, does not create an emergency on my part." Councillors Caldwell had very challenging questions to the organizers which were not well answered. Councillors Clement, and Anderson also had questions that were not answered. Even the Mayor had concerns and felt that the location was not appropriate and pointed out that if someone was trying to build a Concert Venue, it certainly would not be at that location. The only one that was not negative was Deputy Mayor Hope who thought they should be given the chance to prove themselves.
In the end much to my surprise all except Collins and Cowan voted in favour of the modified temporary use bylaw for a one time only event on August 15, basically putting the financial interests of Splash Canyon over that of the local residents. To me that is simply unfair. I hope the agreement between the Township and Splash Canyon includes a clause covering the verbal agreement of the owners that if permitted to have this one large concert, they will cancel all other weekend concerts this summer, at least providing some relief to the area residents. This would make the situation more palatable.
What I find most disappointing is that the last words heard by the councillors were those of Splash Canyon agents, none who live in the area. Normally the final decision would be put off to the next regular council meeting, but because of the August 15 date, they conducted a special council meeting at the end of the regular planning meeting and approved the temporary use bylaw. This to me is a travesty and a slap in the face to those residents who came to the July 13 meeting and thought they had left the matter in good hands. Remember haste makes waste which is what happened at this meeting.
The reality is that Splash Canyon, by the admission of the owners is struggling financially and has since its inception. It is good for council to work with local business, but at the same time cannot ignore the impact on the area, if an entrepreneur has simply made a bad business plan and the business location is flawed. You can't make a silk purse out a sow's ear. If it must be a concert venue to survive then it must cease to exist as the area is not zoned for this type of business. It is as simple as that and as the mayor said, the zoning bylaw has worked well until now and has proven to be effective for the common good of the township. Council is elected to uphold that position.
In closing if any residents read this, I suggest launching an OMB appeal as the temporary use conflicts with a number of Official Plan policies and existing bylaws.
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If you have comments email me at bill.french@hotmail.com