FORT ERIE, Ont. — Eleven miles from the Peace Bridge is a sign on Erie Road that

reads, "Crystal Beach Entrance."



Easy to overlook on a recent, blustery snowy day, the piece of real estate where the sign

is planted sits in the eye of a storm — one that has bitterly divided people in this

quiet beachfront community, as well as many summer residents who live most of the year in

Buffalo.

A developer, with the support of the mayor and a majority of Town Hall members, wants to

build a 12-story condominium on the public beachfront property. In return for ownership, the

Molinaro Group, of Burlington, Ont., has offered to provide a public promenade, pavilion,

outdoor stage, washrooms/changing rooms and other amenities.

Other proposed additions include a water-view restaurant, pedestrian crossings, blacktopped

parking lots and a clock tower.

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Photo gallery: The Crystal Beach condo debate

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The beach is less than a half-mile from where Crystal Beach Amusement Park — now home

to the gated Crystal Beach Tennis & Yacht Club — enchanted visitors for a century before

closing in 1989. Supporters of the project say the 87 upscale units would reinvigorate the

area by attracting more year-round residents to add to tax rolls and boost local businesses.

Opponents say the 120-foot high-rise — well over the current three-story limit

— would do irrevocable harm to the beachfront's ambience. And while Bay Beach is to

remain open to the public, they fear condominium owners unprepared for the deluge of summer

visitors may in the future attempt to restrict or deny access.

Other concerns include reduced parking and destruction of habitat for the Fowler's Toad, a

threatened species in Ontario that lives on Bay Beach.

A precedent is also at stake, they warn. Giving the Crystal Beach Gateway Project the green

light could open the door to similar development on Ontario's southern coast, where summer

cottages stretch along the shoreline.

When it meets March 1 the Town Council is expected to change the zoning bylaw and permit

the tower. First the board will decide whether to approve a report prepared by a planner hired

to study the issue and another compiled by town staff. Those reports will be released to the

public Feb. 22.

The newly incorporated Fort Erie Waterfront Preservation Association, a coalition of

Friends of Crystal Beach and other Fort Erie organizations, business and property owners and

private individuals, is prepared to mount a legal challenge to the Ontario Municipal Board to

get the decision reversed.

Both sides acknowledge it's going to take time to heal the strained relations that have

developed over a contentious issue that seems to have no middle ground.

"I hope when it's all said and done, whichever way the decision goes, that we can still

work together in the community," said Winnie Swalm, an ardent supporter of the project.

Signs of opposition





Yellow signs proclaiming "Keep Bay Beach

Lands Public" can be seen on businesses and homes all over Crystal Beach.

They refer to the 4-acres of sandy beach and adjacent beachfront property where

run-down cottages were acquired by the town in 2001 and torn down, along with parking lots on

the north side of Erie Road, for about $2 million from slot machine revenues.

The intention was always to keep the beach and sell the rest to purchase more waterfront,

said Wayne Redekop, who was mayor at the time, but that changed because of the view the

property presents of Lake Erie.

"It's been a hot-button issue in the town since probably when those cottages were torn down

and those vistas were opened up," Redekop said.

The council was on record supporting development in 2005, when he was still mayor, but the

plan at the time called for "maintaining the small-size character of the area, with structures

being one to three stories in height."



"I think the 12-story condominium is completely out of character with the neighborhood. I

think it's pitting people of good faith against each other, creating problems for the

municipality in terms of trying to move forward, and I think it appears very much as if the

council is trying to ram something through," Redekop said.

While the plan is being promoted as a boon to local business, two business groups —

the Crystal Beach Improvement Association and the Ridgeway Business Improvement Association

— have not endorsed the development. The Fort Erie Chamber of Commerce, said Stephen

Passero, its president, has "no position."



Stephen Oprici, president of the Crystal Beach business organization, said members favor

development on the north side of Erie Road, across from the beach, which the Molinaro Group

rejected.

More than 3,000 people signed petitions last spring and 200 residents staged a rally. More

than 500 residents signed letters of opposition in August.

A changing identity





Martha Lockwood, the Town Council member

who represents the approximately 3,000 residents in Ward 5, where the condominium would be

located, acknowledged opinions are sharply divided.

She believes Crystal Beach's future success lies in more year-round residents. The area,

she said, has come a long way since the "darkest days" that followed the amusement park's

closing, "when the village had lost its identity, property values went down substantially and

it became kind of a ghost town."



She said its identity is changing from when "it was a playground of cottagers predominantly

from Western New York."



"It's been a sleepy little summer resort town for most of its life. For it to become the

lakeside community that it could be, I think the bottom line is that we need people who are

here more than three months a year to stabilize the local economy," Lockwood said.

Lockwood said a divide exists between the full-time residents and those who live there for

the summer. She said every e-mail she has received in support of the project has come from a

full-time resident.

But many who live here year-round, like Ida Oberholt, are sharply opposed.

"There's no work here. Summertime is the only time there's any kind of population around

here. Wintertime? It's deadsville," said Oberholt, a 39-year resident of Crystal Beach.

"But I don't think [the 12-story tower] should be there. It's been our beach for years and

years and years, and I want to keep it that way."



Council member Bob Steckley agrees.

"In the coffee shop and the grocery store, the people who live here year-round are telling

me they don't want this. I don't buy it's just the Americans," Steckley said.

"We're getting hundreds of e-mails on this from all the wards. This is not just a Crystal

Beach issue, it's a Town of Fort Erie issue."



A contentious debate





Mayor Doug Martin compares the current

controversy to the contentious debate that embroiled the Town Council before it approved

building the Fort Erie Municipal Centre, which includes Town Hall and the Leisure Plex.

"There were many who said it was a waste of time and money, it was in the wrong place, it

was too big. Now it is generally looked at with a sense of pride in the town," Martin said.

Martin is convinced the project is needed for Crystal Beach to progress.

"There will be those who see it as a great beginning, the cornerstone of the redevelopment

of Crystal Beach, and there will always be those who will wish for older days when the

[amusement] park was still there and it had a small-town cottage atmosphere," Martin said.

"I think the new history of Crystal Beach begins with this project."



Alternative development ideas that would be more appropriate with the setting have been

dismissed by the council, said Nancy Brock, a North Buffalo resident whose Crystal Beach home

has been in the family since the 1930s.

"Communities across North America have overbuilt their waterfront and are desperate to

reclaim pristine areas like this. This is really a priceless community asset being transferred

to private hands. You never can reverse that, you can never get that back," Brock said.

An overflow crowd of nearly 200 attended the Jan. 26 public hearing. Twenty-six critics of

the project had to wait as 13 supporters spoke first during the 7-hour hearing. The first

opponent didn't get a chance to speak until almost 2 hours after the scheduled start.

If the project is approved and an appeal is turned back, Vincent Molinaro, president and

co-owner of the Molinaro Group, said he expects the company to begin marketing the property in

spring 2011.

Molinaro said construction typically doesn't begin until 70 to 80 percent of the units are

sold. He expects ground to be broken in 2011.

Critics like Sharon Bowers, a Buffalo native who lives in nearby Ridgeway, hopes it doesn't

come to that. "There is nothing wrong with the Molinaro project as such, but it doesn't fit in

with the neighborhood. The land was bought for the people, and that's where it should stay,"

Bowers said.