Bay Roberts resident gets go ahead to protect the beach

By Craig Westcott

A Bay Roberts resident who wants to make erosion control measures near his property on Water Street is getting the go-ahead even though it’s partly on Town land and low on council’s priority list.

The property is located at 305 Water Street.

Mayor Walter Yetman noted the property is located within 15 metres of the high-water mark of the harbour. The Town’s director of protective services, he added, recommended approval in principal of the application, subject to the proponent also getting the required approvals from other levels of government to alter a waterbody.

“So, just for clarification, he wants to do erosion control on the beach?” asked Deputy Mayor Geoff Seymour.
“Yes,” said chief administrative officer Nigel Black.

“Does this impinge on (public) water rights there?” Seymour asked.

“No, it doesn’t,” said Black. “I know the director’s report says it is his (the resident’s) property, but it’s not in fact, it’s just Crown Land or beach. He doesn’t have ownership across the road. From that point of view, he doesn’t own the land.”

Black added the land includes the shoulder of road that the Town would normally maintain. “Basically, he’s looking to upgrade the shoulder of the road, that’s really the Town’s shoulder of the road, but he wants to do the work there,” said the CAO. “I guess from that point of view as long as it’s done to our standard, I don’t really see a problem.”

But, Seymour pointed out, if it’s the Town’s property, the Town would have to oversee the work.

“That area does tend to wash(out), and you do get stuff coming up onto the road,” said councillor Dean Franey. “So, the erosion control, if a resident wants to take that on, that’s fine by me… The leveling of the sidewalk area, technically that’s ours, and my concern would be if something were to happen, the liability is ours. I’d rather that if the area needs to be fixed, we should fix it, in all honesty”
Councillor Silas Babcock said he agreed.

“And I guess that’s the issue,” said Black. “It’s debatable whether it needs to be fixed… It would be very low on our priority list.”
Franey said if the resident wants to do it, the Town will have to make sure it is inspected afterwards.

“The question right now is, are we going to give the resident approval in principle to move forward with his application to Service NL?” said Mayor Yetman.
“I don’t see a reason why not,” said Seymour.

With that, the mayor called the question and approval in principle was granted.