Groups with an interest in the Kingston Waterfront
IN THIS SECTION
Find out about plans for shoreline restoration and waterfront pathway improvements
Background on consultation and process that developed the Waterfront Strategy.
RELATED LINK
Visit the Waterfront Regeneration 
Trust
Web site for more information about the Waterfront Trail.
A number of external stakeholder groups have comments and views on the Kingston waterfront. These comments are summarized below and reflect the viewpoint of the individual organizations and not necessarily the City of Kingston.
KINGSTON ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY FORUM
(a committee of City Council)
Contact: Susan Powley, Committee Clerk
Telephone: 613-546-4291, ext. 1204
E-mail: keaf@cityofkingston.ca
The mission statement for the Kingston Environmental Advisory Forum (KEAF) is: "to provide leadership in improving the quality of our lives and the lives of our children through the thoughtful planning and management of our built and natural environments."
KEAF was created by City Council in January 2000. KEAF, by mandate, must "identify environmental issues and priorities in Kingston and assist the city in the preparation of an environmental strategy." KEAF is also expected to respond to special requests from City Council for advice on environmental issues that may arise. Through public consultation, environmental priorities were identified and recommendations were provided to and endorsed by Council. As a result, working groups were formed to address specific recommendations.
The KEAF Inner Harbour Working group hosted an invited workshop on April 27, 2002. The purpose of the workshop was to share key points from a commissioned data compilation and gap analysis study and to vision about the future water and land uses of the Inner Harbour. The outcome of the Inner Harbour workshop will be made available at the Public Waterfront Visioning Workshop on May 23, 2002.
KINGSTON WETLANDS WORKING GROUP
Contact: Tom Beaubiah
Telephone: 613-546-4228, ext. 240
The Kingston Wetlands Working Group (KWWG) is a cooperative partnership of 11 organizations and agencies, representing Federal, Provincial, Municipal, and public interests. The KWWG's mission is to protect and restore wetland ecosystems in the Kingston Area.
The Kingston Wetlands Working Group achieves their mission through public education, stewardship projects and cooperative action. Funded by the partners, donations, and grants, the KWWG has, among other achievements, directed monitoring programs, installed nesting structures, undertaken wetland restoration projects, prepared management plans, and conducted vegetative buffer enhancement projects with the cooperation of private landowners.
Recent focus has been on the Little Cataraqui Creek watershed. The KWWG is currently working on the EcoAction supported "Little Cat Creek Buffer Project".
VALLEY LANDS GROUP
Telephone: 613-549-1707E-mail: schmolka@kingston.net
The Valley Lands Group first met in August 2001 in response to the proposed land sale by the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) to Llynlea Corporation. The 4-acre sale would allow a 44-house development to be built adjacent to the Rideau Trail in the midst of the greenbelt that borders the mouth of Little Cataraqui Creek. The Creek runs through the greenbelt which stretches from Lake Ontario north past the 401. Individuals and representatives of many Kingston environmental associations have been lobbying the CRCA and Kingston City Council, hoping to protect this area from development. City Council will have to change the land use designation of the Official Plan for the area from "open space" to "low density" residential before the houses can be built. As well the provincial government has to approve the CRCA land sale. The Group's goals are to:
- prevent any housing from being built between Little Cataraqui Creek and the start of the Rideau Trail, north of King Street West
- protect the lands all along Little Cataraqui Creek from future development pressures
- ensure that the city does not change the Open Space land use designation for the areas bordering the Creek, and
- solidify citizen support for maintaining the greenbelt surrounding the Creek so that decision-makers will not support any future development plans for this area
As of April 1, 2002, the provincial government has not given the necessary approvals to the CRCA for the land sale to Llynlea Corporation and City Council has not given third reading to the bylaw changing the Official Plan and land use designation to allow a housing development to be built in the greenbelt.
WATERFRONT COMMITTEE
Contact: Helen Finley
Telephone: 613-548-4059
Fax: 613-548-7629
E-mail: helen.finley@sympatico.ca
The Waterfront Committee is an independent waterfront ideas committee. The members have been meeting regularly since March 2001 and have contributed generously of their time, expertise and experience.
The committee's discussions have led it to articulate the following waterfront principles:
- maximize public access
- increase public ownership of waterfront lands
- establish uses that benefit the maximum number of people
- plan and design for maximum visibility of the water
- protect the environment of our waterfront
- preserve our heritage
- consult the citizens of Kingston
The committee members believe Kingston's waterfront is more than a walkway connecting a series of parks. It is the committee's view that the City should define a waterfront zone that incorporates water, the water's edge and land related to the water through use or views and should take as its starting point, the activities which citizens and others might undertake in that zone. "Kingston's waterfront is fertile with opportunities where the past and the future might bloom together". With this in mind, committee members are generating ideas for various sites on the waterfront, and inviting others to share their ideas. We hope to contribute to the appreciation of the importance of good urban design and quality implementation, and to decision-making that will celebrate and enhance one of the most spectacular and varied waterfronts in Canada.
WATERFRONT WORKING GROUP
Contact: Barbara Bradfield, Chair
Telephone: 613-546-6683, ext. 274
The Waterfront Working Group (WWG) is a volunteer organization working with the support of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust to promote the waterfront trail eastward from Greater Napanee, along the Loyalist Parkway (Highway 33) to the City of Kingston and on to Gananoque along former Highway 2, with linkages eastward via the St. Lawrence Bikeway to the City of Brockville. This work is based on the 1996 report The Foundation: An Inventory of Natural and Cultural Assets: Phase 1 of the Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence Waterfront Strategy, (McGuire/Campeau) which analyzed the Kingston bioregion.
Since 1999, WWG has undertaken several planning initiatives, including several public consultation meetings in the Town of Greater Napanee and in Loyalist Township, and presentations to local councils and other interest groups about the importance of waterfront protection and regeneration. Secondary trails are also proposed, for example on Amherst Island and across Wolfe Island to the Seaway Trail on the U.S. side of the lake, and for greenways such as along Millhaven Creek.
The group wishes to see the former City of Kingston Waterfront Pathway system extended east and west to improve access along our remarkable shoreline. The consultation process extends eastward to include groups in the Gananoque area, which are keen to improve trails. The Waterfront Working Group hopes to open a section of trail this year in the Greater Napanee and Loyalist municipalities, an important step which will draw people to enjoy the many historical, environmental, and cultural features from Adolphustown to Brockville.
