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A New Residents’ Association Is Picking Up Momentum: Next Steps – Organization and Awareness

Christine Whelan, FEO April 14, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 17

A group of local residents who have been watching the wave of new development rise around them towards urbanization feel it’s essential to ensure the community is developed with the utmost respect for the environment, sustainability and its citizens. And they are eager to work with the Town of Fort Erie to meet this goal.

But first, the foundation needs to be set.

To explore the interest in the community for such a group, an initial meeting, offered first to Crystal Beach residents, was scheduled, bringing in 30 interested residents. Mayor Redekop and Councillor Butler attended the meeting.

The group says they need to get an organization in place and are focused on building an executive to move forward effectively.

Ridgeway resident, Martyn Cooper, has stepped up to take some leadership in the interim. He says that the association is not being created for any negative, protesting reasons. They are coming at the situation from a need for awareness point of view.

Understanding the Wave

The group recognizes the need that Canada has for new homes to be built and that Crystal Beach, Ridgeway, and Stevensville are very attractive to developers.

Martyn admitted, “I understand why people want to move to this area. It’s a very attractive area. It’s an appealing area for developers being quiet, friendly, and rural, with proximity to Lake Erie, Niagara, and the US. And because we are rural communities, we have numerous older houses on large lots. They are attractive to developers to build stacked townhomes and low rises.”

He added, “We just need to manage it with regards to the environment and make sure we can sustain and support the growth that is on the books and being planned by developers.”

Martyn and the members are looking for a balance.

Why the Concern?

Ridgeway and Crystal Beach have several developments in the plan which will see hundreds of new homes built in the coming years and many low-rise apartments.

Martyn commented, “They don’t want the sprawl to continue. They want to infill and grow within the existing, urban area. That’s a fine strategy. We just need to make sure that this plan can be supported. Crystal Beach, Ridgeway and Stevensville are essentially rural communities that have a low density of population with a roads and services infrastructure that matches.”

Painting a further picture, “We have many roads that are narrow with no sidewalks. We have areas with ditches for stormwater removal and several drainage problem areas. We have many houses on septic tanks and water cisterns.

“The town centers of Ridgeway, Crystal Beach, and Stevensville are rural in nature with narrow roads, very limited parking, and are historic in nature.

“We have limited ingress and egress to the QEW along Gorham Road, Stevensville Road, and Sodom Road,” which is one road with three different names along different stretches, “These are single lane roads with no sidewalks. We have two railway lines that cross those roads with no bridges, and the road through Stevensville is narrow.”

Cooper would also like to address the tree by-laws or lack of. He says that because of the lack of tree by-laws, the developers can cut down any trees they’d like. He commented more than once about the flooding that has already been occurring.

“Urban communities are planned from the get-go. They’re planned with major roads, sewage and drainage. Ridgeway, Crystal Beach and Stevensville were developed in the 19th century. They weren’t planned communities. This is something we have to start addressing.”

The Residents’ Association’s First Steps

“We are looking for executive members for the board– a president, treasurer, secretary. We need a communications person who can be in charge of a website, and send out emails to people. We need someone who has some experience in town planning who can tell us what work we need to do to prove our concerns.”

Once the executive members are in place, Martyn anticipates that the committee will get out into the public, “We can then start to have a booth at the Ridgeway Market, the Stevensville Market, and the Crystal Beach Market and attract members that way.”

Another next step, Martyn imagines, will then be the development of a website. “And go from there.”

The group welcomes Ridgeway, Crystal Beach and Stevensville residents as members.

If you are interested in contacting Martyn Cooper:  coope47@gmail.com

There are no upcoming events at this time.