Erosion barrier in Victoria Beach approved

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This article was published 10/10/2023 (962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Victoria Beach residents are divided after its mayor and council approved an erosion barrier along a stretch of two of its famed beaches to protect a group of lakefront cottage owners.

Some fear the move could destroy the beaches forever.

The council voted earlier this week to give conditional approval to 17 property owners along King Edward and Alexandra beaches so they can pay about $700,000 to construct a rock barrier more than 200 metres in length.

As well, the council agreed it would create and budget for a beach sand nourishment program for the area between the rocks and Lake Winnipeg — estimated to cost about $400,000 every five years.

While the motion itself doesn’t say it, councillors at the Oct. 3 meeting discussed hiring an engineer to review the project before it begins.

“Council has work to do on the details of this current project and until that is done, I have no comments to share,” Mayor Penny McMorris said in an email last week.

At the council meeting, McMorris noted a decade ago erosion along the waterfront had left less than two metres before reaching the property lines of 87 of the 270 shoreline properties in the entire municipality. An earlier report to council had said once that happened, the private property owners would have control of the beach, 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

“Seven of these properties, within two metres, are in this reach,” the mayor said. “(A report said) these beaches erode 0.2 metres per year or two metres in 10 years. It is now nine years later, so we must be pretty close to that two metres.”

McMorris admitted any decision the council made would be controversial.

“Councils have been delaying this, avoiding this, for decades because it is expensive and it is contentious,” she said. “We are at the point where we have to do something.

“This is a huge decision and it will impact our community.”

Sean Taylor, who has a back-lot cottage, said an engineering report council was relying on predicted a project like the one they have now approved would render the entire beach unusable for anyone.

“Property values will depreciate, therefore, I think such actions will inevitably prompt some owners to reconsider their residence at Victoria Beach,” Taylor said.

“Moreover, once the destructive impacts of these structures are realized, and the beaches have disappeared, many remaining in the community will be looking to hold someone financially (and) legally accountable for the consequences.”

Nicolas Juzda, whose family has had a cottage in the area for decades, said everyone who spoke about the issue at two council meetings in September were against the proposal.

“This is widely seen as detrimental to the community,” said Juzda, adding the council motion says if in the first five years the barrier needs to be fixed, the lakefront property owners have to do it to a maximum of $80,000.

“If it is higher than that, it’s up to taxpayers.”

None of the cottage owners in favour of the plan could be reached for comment, but at council’s Aug. 22 meeting, Laura Jones said she is one of the property owners willing to pay for protection because “our yard is about to cave in and become part of the beach. Once it is on private land, the beaches will no longer be public.”

Pete Zuzek, president of Zuzek Inc., authored a report a decade ago, when he worked with another engineering firm, about Victoria Beach’s shoreline and what could be done to help it.

Zuzek said he wouldn’t comment on the latest shoreline project but had some advice for all of the cottagers.

“Managing shoreline and beaches is hard, complex and it is a continuing process,” he said. “I think there would be some merit in dusting off (the decade-old report) and have a professional scientist and professional engineer take a look at it.

“But what people really need to know is the only way to solve these complex community problems is to work together.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca