Uproar over yacht clubs in Beaconsfield

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

Citizens, boaters and councillors clashed in Beaconsfield Monday night as the city explained extensive restoration work on its two publicly-owned, privately-operated yacht clubs.

The parties converged on Beaconsfield’s council chamber for a tumultuous public meeting.

For months, residents at city council meetings have demanded Beaconsfield sell off the properties because the clubs don’t pay municipal taxes and non-members have only limited access.

Others have asked for a detailed long-term “vision” for the lands, outlining how the public will benefit from them in the future.

The city, which has a management contract with the Lord Reading Yacht Club until 2018, wants to keep the land until the agreement ends.

Council hopes one day it will become a public-use area. “Unlike other West Island communities, most of our waterfront is developed,” said Mayor Bob Benedetti, adding the land’s use at the end of the contract will be determined by a future council. “Right now our job is to continue the dream of the previous council that signed these contracts, which is to preserve this dream of green space for the future of Beaconsfield.”

But residents object to Beaconsfield’s plan to spend thousands to replace Lord Reading’s disintegrating seawall with a naturalized shoreline.

In the last couple of years, the city spent $760,000 (plus tax) to restore a heritage building at the Beaconsfield Yacht Club, urban planning director Denis Chabot told residents during a brief presentation.

Chabot said a $65,000 investment is still needed to replace storm windows on the 200-year-old building, which is owned by the city.

The city bought the Beaconsfield Yacht Club in 1966 for $175,000 and the Lord Reading land for $150,000 in 2001.

Montreal’s valuation website lists Beaconsfield and Lord Reading yacht club’s combined buildings and land values at $1.8 million and $2.9 million, respectively.

Lord Reading commodore Bryant Johnson, meanwhile, said the club is run mainly by volunteers and covers all its own operation costs, which reach close to $300,000 a year.

Chemicals in the seawall’s rotting railway ties threaten the health of the lake, Johnson said. “It’s got nothing to do with money, it’s an environmental issue,” he said.

He believes replacing the wall would be necessary whether the property was a park or yacht club. The city will benefit from the agreement in the long run, he added. “At the end of the agreement, in my humble opinion, I think it will be combined with Centennial Park,” the Beaconsfield resident said, adding it will probably still be a marina.

He said the city made a good long-term investment when it bought the land from the club. “In the big picture, that land is going to be worth a lot of money,” he said.

But citizens in attendance fumed over the fact fewer than half the members at each club hail from Beaconsfield. “Just get rid of it,” said Geoff Byrne, a Beaconsfield resident since 1978. “We’ve got (more than) 4,000 kids playing soccer and... (the city is) looking for more costs to be passed onto the parents.”

Byrne was abruptly ejected from Monday’s meeting by the mayor for shouting “Shut up!” at a Lord Reading member from Dorval.

But Benedetti said except for recent “extraordinary” work, the city only pumps about $30,000 into both clubs annually. He compared the yacht clubs to tenants of the city.

He says those who oppose the city’s ownership of the yacht club properties are a “relatively small minority.”

But resident Omar Rifai told the packed chamber many more citizens are against retaining the land. He called for a city referendum on the yacht clubs.

Another resident offered to buy the property and hand it back to the citizens.

Bobby Argento told Benedetti to name his price. “It’s worthless to me if I pay one nickel of my tax money and not be able to use it,” he said. “I’m serious.”

Benedetti invited Argento to discuss it further. “You come by my office, I’ll be happy to talk to you about it,” he said.