With four possible options presented, the City of North Bay has no shortage of avenues to take for the future of the King’s Landing Wharf.
These alternatives were presented to the public Tuesday night for citizens to view the details of and leave comments for city staff to take and implement in the process.
The City has initiated a Schedule C, Municipal Class Environmental Assessment to evaluate the wharf and marina area. The wharf is in poor condition and will require significant investment to replace it with a safe and functional structure.
“We had a public meeting early in October and we gave a lot of the information here tonight,” said Senior Project Manager, Gerry McCrank. “But we’re presenting a lot more information and tonight we’re trying to get more awareness and feedback, as well as give people an idea of what direction we’re moving into.”
The four proposed options as shown during the meeting included, doing nothing, repairing the existing wharf, decommissioning and removing the existing wharf, and replacing the existing wharf with naturalized spit including a recreational trail upon it. However, McCrank said they are leaning more toward the fourth alternative, which would see the King’s Landing Wharf removed and replaced with the naturalized spit.
“According to the score matrix, the fourth alternative of a naturalized wave break has the best impact,” McCrank said.
Although early, the alternatives have estimated capital and maintenance costs attached to the evaluation matrix.
- To remove the wharf, it’s estimated to cost approximately $1.5 million for future demolition and removal, while
- repairing the wharf is estimated to cost between $3 - $7 million,
- replacing it with a breakwater is estimated to cost between $5 - $8 million,
- and finally the naturalized wave break is estimated around $9 - $14 million.
However, all the three first options would be paid for the municipality entirely, while the final option of a naturalized wave break could be a project paid by all three levels of government in equal thirds.
“With a naturalized wave spit, it all becomes recreation,” he said. “It becomes a showpiece for the waterfront. People will recognize it as being very different and it sort of becomes one with the water. People want to get out and get active and it’d be a great place to go and see the area.”
However, concerns from citizens lay with the price tag associated with options offering more than simple repairs, especially with the final option carrying a maintenance total of between $180,000 - $210,000 a year.
McCrank did say that alternative one, which meant doing nothing, wasn't an attractive option, as it meant abandoning the wharf and the space that it offered, and their report served to show just how detrimental that could be for citizens.
Staff will now work toward putting the information presented online for remaining citizens to access, while still looking for more comments from the public. In the meantime, they are taking comments they’ve received to date and implementing them into the project moving forward.
