Reimagining

Residents gather to share ideas for Wellington Beach

The Highline Hall in Wellington was abuzz with creative energy last Thursday afternoon. A group of Wellington Waterfront Task Team members, along with interested residents and designers from the Planning Partnership— A Toronto-based Landscape Architecture, Planning, Urban Design & Communications Firm—set out to carve a path forward, and dream big about what Wellington Beach could look like in the future.

It’s no secret that Wellington Beach has had its share of challenges the last few years. From long lineups, to overcrowding. Overflowing garbage bins to paid entry. Decreased boat launch use and resident beach passes. It’s safe to say Wellington’s crown jewel may never be the same as it once was.

Earlier this year, a Wellington Waterfront Task Team was put in place to brainstorm and put together ideas for how the beach could function better. And last week, this very team, and members of the public gathered to take part in a design charrette—a short, collaborative meeting during which a participants can talk through, collaborate, and sketch designs to explore and share a broad diversity of design ideas.

The Planning Partnership Principal, Donna Hinde, opened the workshop with a short presentation. She walked through the geography, location and amenities currently at the beach, and then explained how the charrette would work. There were three groups, with each having a different design task. The first was ‘Tweak’ which would see the current beach landscape and amenities only changed somewhat, to enhance the user experience. The second group was ‘Naturalize’. This team’s task was to look at the beach design from a more environmental approach by working with the elements that are currently there, and adding more green features. The last was ‘Big Moves’ which saw members dream big, and think outside of the box. This group had a blank slate to make any changes they deemed fit.  After an hour and a half of design time, each team presented its concept. Although each team was given a different task, many of the elements were similar. Notable additions included a paved sidewalk from Main Street, down Beach Street to the beach, a more functional parking area that holds fewer vehicles and provides a more walkable beach, a non-motorized boat launch with resident storage for canoes, kayaks and equipment, and an extended and updated boardwalk. The ‘Big Moves’ group even added a bridge from the beach to the main harbour.

Another clear issue was parking. Many attendees wanted to see signage that pointed visitors to offsite parking at the arena. There was also comments that the signage needed to be placed farther out of town to give drivers a warning that beach parking was full, and to make other arrangements.

There was also some contention on the boat launch at the beach. Each concept had a different vision for how it would operate. The Naturalize group removed motorized boat launching and trailer parking. The ‘Tweak’ group added a second launch and made a more streamlined parking area for trailers, and the ‘Big Move’ group allowed boat launching, with trailer parking offsite.

Resident Evan Nash said it was one of the better public input sessions he had attended. “I would love to congratulate Ashley Stewart and her colleagues at the Community Economic and Development Department for putting on an excellent event. The Planning Partners did a fantastic job of taking local knowledge and applying it to contemporary planning tactics,” said Nash.

“This community dearly values our public beach, the municipality has done a good job of recognizing Wellington’s investment and relationship with this asset. I hope that our residents and municipality continue to work together over the coming months to shape the future of Wellington as we move forward with changes proposed around town and north of the village. This event did an excellent job of setting the tone for that development.”

Later in the evening, after the concepts had been pinned to the wall, the doors were opened for the public to attend, browse, and give input on each team’s work.

Planning Partnership Principal Donna Hinde, shared it was nice to get back to an in-person public session after conducting the last two years of meetings virtually. “There was positive energy all afternoon. It was fantastic with a really good cross-section of participants including many young people in the room,” she said. Hinde had visited Wellington Beach earlier in the day, and said it is a beautiful asset for the town as well as the whole County, but like many Ontario municipalities with public water access, it will be sought out by visitors from across the province. “Like on every waterfront beach location, there are challenges of accommodating residents and visitors. We need clear signage which tells people what they are welcome to do, not what they can’t do. There is a great opportunity to provide beautiful amenities and jewels in the landscape,” said Hinde.

Councillor Mike Harper was pleased with how the workshop turned out. “My main thought leading up the exercise was this is an important moment in time. Individually and collectively, we need to think about what our values are, how we are going to share this gem that we have, and with whom,” said Harper “From a methodology standpoint, the workshop was the ultimate in public engagement, going beyond asking for feedback, actually having residents in engage in the creation of a vision for the future. We came away with some really exciting ideas.”

The landscape architects from The Planning Partnership will refine the concepts based on the public open house, and then put the three concepts through the County’s Have Your Say online engagement tool for further input. Results will be reviewed by the Wellington Waterfront Task Team and next steps identified. A report will be written and submitted to the Community Economic and Development Commission for consideration before presentation to Council.