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IPPERWASH BEACH – Police called. Venting on social networks. And he worries that things could become even more difficult.
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Shootings on the shores of southwestern Ontario’s Lake Huron are growing amid trespassing and bullying complaints as frustrated homeowners clash with hikers over access to sand and the water of his private property.
The confrontations have not come to a fight, but some fear that is only a matter of time.
“This is a big concern for all of us, whether it’s a beach front, someone in an RV park or a tourist,” said Paulina, a lakefront cottage owner who didn’t want to be fully identified, fearing reprisals.
“It cuts into the whole name of the area,” he said of the problems.
Paul Montgomery, another lakeside farmer, said he has not seen any major clashes but is aware there have been further down the coast on Ipperwash Road.
“I’ve heard around their cottages, both east and west of this road, people having some real fights, not punching, but real shouting matches and calling the police “, he said. “It’s like a bunch of adults acting like kids sometimes, on both sides.”
The dispute is playing out on Ipperwash Beach, an hour north-west of London, but at its core it is an old issue: access to the private beach and the public beach, which are ‘has broken out before in southwestern Ontario, where there are many rural homes throughout the region. Lake shores.
Donna Dimmel, a year-round cottager, said they have argued with belligerents over their right to fall in the middle of their family gatherings.
“Nothing we say makes them understand and they just bully,” he wrote in an email.
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Some lakefront cottage owners at Ipperwash Beach say putting up signs that say, “Private Beach No Trespassing: Private Waterfront Property,” have helped explain the public-private boundaries there. Terry Bridge/Sarnia Observer
Mayor Bill Weber of Lambton Shores, the municipality that occupies the area, said it all comes down to a lack of respect.
“I think a lot of things could be solved if people had a little respect for each other,” he said.
The main problem, cottage owners say, is that they own the beach in front of their properties, either up to the high sea line or down to the water’s edge, according to their deeds.
But many people who go to a nearby public beach off Crown-owned West Parkway Drive either don’t notice or don’t care and settle on their private turf, they say.
Just walking along the water’s edge is something, many say. But settling in and getting comfortable, with towels, tents and barbecues, is going too far, they say.
A similar issue, one also involving a nearby public beach, came to a boil near Midland more than a decade ago after a couple built a six-foot-tall wooden fence on the edge of water on its beach along Georgian Bay to keep intruders out.
The mini-wall was set on fire and chainsawed, and other acts of violence erupted, before the case ended up in court where the owner and his son were found not guilty of assault charges.
While many beaches in Ontario are publicly owned, the rules are murkier for public access to water and sand along privately owned beaches. In some cases, patents guarantee public access and some beaches have road permits, or strips of land reserved by the Crown or a municipality, where people walking should not be a problem.
“Ownership should be confirmed by looking at individual patents to determine what is private and what is not,” Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry spokeswoman Anita Tamrazi said by email, adding that “the boundaries of waterfront property are sometimes complex.”
But if a property’s ownership has waterfront rights and there’s no shoreline allowance, a property owner may have good reason to keep outsiders out, says real estate attorney Ryan Martin.
“I would say if you can prove that, yes, (the owner) does, in fact, own the land right up to the water’s edge, I think people will have a hard time saying that. This is a public beach,” said the Toronto lawyer.
On Ipperwash Beach, some say they are tired of having to prove to outsiders that they own their beaches. Sensitive to unwanted reactions, they also don’t want their full names used.
Paulina’s husband, Henry, said that for two years he walked around with the deed to his property in his back pocket.
“As someone who lives in a city, it’s frustrating that every weekend you have to prove that you actually own your (home),” he said.
A couple who own a group of lakefront cottages they rent out say they’ve run into the same problem. Most beachgoers who venture onto their property leave after being told the ropes, Wayne and Christine said.
“But there are a large handful who don’t and become belligerent, aggressive,” he said.
“That’s why the OPP is called,” he added.
Lambton OPP confirm they have been called to the area, but say there were no physical altercations or charges.
Montgomery, 68, whose family has owned cottages in the area since the 1950s, said he can see both sides of the debate.
“There are people who are getting really screwed over because someone puts their towel in front of their so-called private beach,” he said, adding that those property owners also pay high prices and taxes for their beach properties.
“I can understand that when someone pays a couple of million dollars for a country house that they want certain things, so we have to appease them without ruining the whole atmosphere of the beach where people walk from one end to the other other and feels safe.” he said
The debate has raged on social media, with some people complaining that some cottage owners are harassing beachgoers with a get-off-the-lawn mentality.
“If you hate people enjoying the beach so much then don’t have a place on a beach like Ipperwash,” one person posted. “It’s the same mentality as people who buy houses on a golf course and complain about the golfers.”
Another said they saw a homeowner call the police about a family sitting on the water’s edge, hundreds of yards from the homeowner’s place. “I really can’t understand the threat that beachfront property owners feel to a family sitting on their part of the beach.”
Montgomery said he experienced the problem firsthand when he bought a second lakefront cottage six months ago. His lawyer told him that his deed says he owns the water’s edge, but there is a built-in assumption that the public can walk along that edge. But how much of that space they can use while walking is a bit of a gray area, he added.
“Battles over beach ownership and access surface from time to time, often after properties change hands, and have become more frequent since the pandemic broke out, with more urban people moving to rural properties.” – Terry Rees, Executive Director of the Ontario Federation of Cottagers. ‘Associations.
The situation at Ipperwash beach “is very complicated”, with a stretch of beach divided into sections of both public and private property with different public access points. “Come on, there’s a property, then you go up 300 meters and that would be public.” But go another 300 meters, “this is private. It’s very fractured.” — Michele Ferri, president, Center Ipperwash Community Association, which represents more than 140 property owners in the area.
tbridge@postmedia.com; cleon@postmedia.com
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