The boardwalk at the Tip of the Bay property in Picton, despite nearly being complete, is still on hold for now.
At Tuesday’s Prince Edward County council meeting council narrowly struck down a new Memorandum of Understanding regarding compensation for the property owners Tenacity Capital PEC Inc.
According to a staff report the project was originally conceived in 2011 under the previous owners of the property. The idea was to create a boardwalk with space for commercial buildings, condominium townhomes and a waterfront boardwalk.
The project was never realized and in 2017 the property changed hands to Tenacity.
The original MOU outlined a $250,000 development charges credit to the owners, to be used in future developments by the group, as compensation once the boardwalk was completed to the satisfaction of the municipality.
To eliminate complexities with the new owners the staff report presented to council Tuesday night instead changed it from a development charges credit to up to $250,000 in cash upon completion.
The new MOU also included a clause that would see the owners and any future successors be solely responsible for maintenance and capital upkeep of the boardwalk, as the original one did not specify.
Due to the recent completion of the county’s 2022 capital budget Councillor Janice Maynard asked, assuming the boardwalk was a capital project, how the county would fit in the $250,000.
Chief Administrative Officer Marcia Wallace clarified that the bulk would come from development charges and the remaining amount of approximately $79,000 would come from the capital sustainability reserve.
However, when time came to vote on signing the MOU a recorded vote was called and it failed with seven councillors opposed and five councillors plus the mayor in favour.
Councillor Phil St-Jean questioned where this left them and CAO Wallace said that they would have to return to Tenacity to see what their next steps were.
Earlier in the meeting Community Programs Supervisor Emily Cowan confirmed that the boardwalk is very much near completion and the combination of recent poor weather and the holiday season are the main things that held it back from being fully complete.
