The fight continues for public access to The Rock.
Residents in Nipissing Township have launched a GoFundMe campaign in support of its legal effort to maintain public access to The Rock – a much treasured lakefront spot on Lake Nipissing. The township was considering a request from a property owner to purchase the land that provides access to The Rock, which pushed The Save the Rock group too far.
The group is now looking into legal remedies. The goal is to find out once and for all who owns what, where the shore road allowance lies, and finalize the land survey once and for all, so there will be no doubt moving forward, and access to The Rock will remain public.
The Rock spans both public and private lands, and the access point – near Birchgrove Drive West and Sunset Cove Road – is currently in dispute. Members of the Save The Rock group explained that this boundary conflict, which came to light after a recent private property survey, came to council in October.
At that time the Mayor of Nipissing Township, Tom Piper, declared it was too costly for the township to re-do the survey. Plus, with no application to purchase the public lands at The Rock, council decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
See: Save the Rock hits roadblock on path to accessibility
In February, the township posted a resolution to its website which would approve in principle an application by private property owners to purchase the shore road allowance at The Rock.
Now, “the issue of The Rock has been deferred to the court system,” clarified Kelly Pritchard, the President and Chair of Save The Rock, “where the fate of public access will now be decided.”
“Some things you can’t put a price on,” Pritchard added, including public access to public spaces. “This is a valuable opportunity for us to champion a cause that is incredibly close to the hearts and minds of countless residents and visitors.”
Indeed, members of the group, with the help of Diego Fleischmajer, a Canadore College student, produced a video to highlight those residents who have had a special connection to The Rock. The video, appears on the group’s YouTube channel and its GoFundMe page.
Save The Rock is a not-for-profit group and is “calling on everyone who believes our natural spaces are what makes Northern Ontario great to help us protect our beloved public gathering space,” the group detailed in a recent statement.
At the time of writing, the GoFundMe has raised just over $14,000. To see for yourself, visit the groups campaign page at Give Today to Save our Public Land for Tomorrow. Or, see their petition at Change.org.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
