Blocked

Public access to Pleasant Bay is gated and locked

As an island community, Prince Edward County residents are understandably protective of their access to the water. Nowhere is this sense more acutely felt than in Hillier— the nexus for a long history of skirmishes between neighbouring landowners and folks accustomed to public access its beaches and dunes.

The latest involves Pleasant Bay Road— a gravel road that begins at Loyalist Parkway west of Hillier and proceeds along the south side of Pleasant Bay. The gravel road is maintained for a length of about four kilometres and serves a half-dozen homes. The roadway then gives way to track leading toward Hawthorne Point in Pleasant Bay.

The roadway has been used for decades by local residents, hunters and anglers to gain access to the bay. But in April, steel gates were erected across the gravel roadway with signs declaring it private property and that trespassing would not be permitted.

When the barrier gates first went up, the County’s roads folks were taken by surprise. After a brief investigation, they concluded it would be difficult to verify that the open public highway extended past the hedgerow where the gate had been erected. Historic public access rights will have to be proved, said Robert McAuley, the County’s commissioner for works, development and engineering.

“The relatively recent practice of property owners barring perceived historic public access to water in Hillier has been an issue,” said McAuley. “Many old roads or accesses were not adequately documented in Hillier’s past or have since lost use so are now in dispute. Some private waterfront parcels also have crown patents that may or may not have taken away any past public water access or road rights.”

Vic Alyea has lived on on Bakker Road, the next road south of Pleasant Bay Road all his life. He says the Pleasant Bay Road once stretched all the way to Bakker Road—providing access to a canning factory on Pleasant Bay. He says farmers all along Bakker Road used this road to deliver tomatoes to the factory operated by Jack Taylor from Hillier and Baxter family of Bloomfield.

At some point over the years, the roadway was tilled over.

Alyea says it is a mistake to allow the landowner to seize public property without a challenge—especially one of the few public access routes to water.

McAuley, however, worries that the County’s claim may be expensive to prove.

Alyea figures that unless gates across Pleasant Bay Road are challenged, other property owners will be emboldened to put gates across other Hillier roadways.

“A precedent now exists,” said Alyea.

The 1878 Belden Atlas appears to corroborate Alyea’s contention that Pleasant Bay Road or the road right-of way originally turned south, crossing Bakker Road to Huyck’s Bay.

Council will have to decide whether access to Hillier’s beaches and dunes is worth fighting for.