The waterfront is a public asset

Orillia's identity is on the water. The Centennial Park trail, the Aqua Theatre, the Port of Orillia, Tudhope Park — these are the places residents bring out-of-town family to. They are also, increasingly, the places under quiet pressure from one-off development proposals that, taken individually, are reasonable, but taken together would slowly close the shoreline off.

I do not have a position against waterfront development in principle. I have a position in favour of a public framework that says, before any individual application, which stretches of shoreline are reserved for continuous public access in perpetuity, which are appropriate for compatible mixed-use, and which are working-port. Without that framework, every proposal becomes a one-off political fight, and the cumulative result is usually worse than any of the individual decisions.

There is a recent example of why this matters. In 2024, an inquiry motion by Coun. Leatherdale prompted Council to direct staff to explore revenue-generating uses of City facilities; the City subsequently issued an Expression of Interest in 2025 covering commercial operations and leasing at sites including Couchiching Beach Park and J.B. Tudhope Memorial Park. The absence of a binding shoreline plan to evaluate such proposals against is exactly the situation a long-horizon plan would prevent. The 'Our Orillia' Official Plan now under adoption identifies view corridors to Lake Couchiching as part of the broader downtown framework — that is the place to anchor the plan I am proposing.

What I would do this term: commission a long-horizon Waterfront Access Plan with a public review process and a binding map. Once adopted, every development application affecting the shoreline would be evaluated against the map before any other criteria. The Plan should be reviewable every five years, with assumptions stress-tested against climate adaptation and accessibility.

I want to be clear about what I do not know yet. I do not have a fully worked position on the specific waterfront EOI process or any individual application that has flowed from it; I am still reading the staff reports and the responses. I do have a position that proposals like that one should be evaluated against a public plan, not assembled in front of one.