Area residents are pleased with the city's remediation work which is nearing completion at Wilkins Park beach and the controls in place to address overuse by out-of-town tourists.
Homeowners near to the south-end Barrie park had complained to the city about noise, garbage and destruction of the environmentally sensitive area during the summer of 2020, which saw as many as 75 to 100 people at the small beach on one of those days, according to the city.
With social-distancing protocols in place, the small park should only have had a capacity of around 50 people in a safe manner during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“The beach was being abused by people that didn’t live in the area”, said Derek Tremblay, who lives within a short walk of the park. “It’s no problem sharing things as long as people don’t get carried away and abuse it.”
The city implemented parking restrictions in the vicinity of the park along with stepped-up enforcement.
“And this year, I haven’t found it too bad, really, with the parking (signs) up and having to have (parking) passes," added Tremblay.
"Complaints at Wilkins were way down this summer compared to last," said city spokesperson Scott LaMantia. "We only had 43 complaints logged."
Most of those were warnings for tents and barbecues, he said, noting two tickets were issued.
The beach has also been removed from the city's webpage in an effort to stop drawing attention to it.
Wilkins Park is an outlet for Hewitt’s Creek, which empties into Lake Simcoe at the beach. It has been fenced in and marked with signs to keep foot traffic away from it as it is a sensitive and protected waterway and cold-water fishery.
Beach-goers had been wading and fishing in the creek due to the unrestricted access at the time and the damage set back the previous efforts by the city to preserve and manage the stream bed near the beach.
The small sandy beach at the shoreline had been a magnet for summertime visitors. Complaints were also made due to tents and barbecues being set up along the shore. And with the absence of washroom facilities, visitors resorted to using the nearby wooded areas to relieve themselves.
Improvements to the site in 2021 included upgrading the stairways that access the shore from the park at street level along with the rehabilitation of the beach and creek.
The city still has to install a small cross culvert to improve drainage in the area, LaMantia said, adding staff will to continue monitor the area for additional issues.
“I think (the city) did what they could to make it better, for the beach itself, with the eroding”, said Tremblay.
Patrick Larouche, whose property is next to the park, said “I have to praise what the city council did. They were much in tune with listening to the people in the neighbourhood. There were a few meetings here in the park where they heard the concerns.
“From a resident’s perspective, I’m super happy with what they did as it came back to being the neighbourhood that it was before, instead of people from out of town with tents and barbecues," he added.
“People were drawn to this beach because there were no parking fees. People that were (in Barrie) for half a day decided not to pay 50 bucks and started coming here.
"We had seen some abuse, let’s call it that, and not the best behaviour. I think everyone is more at peace now. I don’t know if the parking restrictions are here to stay, but we’ll see," said Larouche.
The parking restrictions near Wilkins Park will continue into 2022, LaMantia said.
"Council approved them permanently with the rest of the spillover parking restrictions around the other waterfront parking areas," he said.
