A trio of Shuniah residents have each filed $1-million statements of claims against the municipality, saying officials have done nothing to stop the public from flocking to municipally owned beachfront property located on O’Connor Drive.
Greg Birston said he and his family bought two tracts of land on the once-quiet street, located off Eldorado Beach Road.
In his suit, Birston, who bought his property in 1987, alleges as the weather warms hundreds of people traipse across the city owned land, resulting in disruption to the lives of him and his family.
It’s one of at least three lawsuits the Municipality of Shuniah is facing over the matter, which has led to several special meetings of council this year alone as the community to the east of Thunder Bay attempts to make a final decision on what to do with the land.
Suits have also been filed by O’Connor Drive residents Daniel and Samantha Filopovic and Gary and Jaqueline Halls.
Birston says he’s subject to harassment, humiliation, intimidation and threats, intolerable noise, excessive parking of vehicles, drunken behaviour, lewd and obscene behaviour, deposits of garbage and other material, public urination on his property and unwelcome trespass and use of both family plots.
Birston also said he has to put up with loud and obnoxious partying on the city owned lot in question, which lasts late into the evening by people “who are intoxicated and under the influence of narcotics.”
He’s also dealt with theft from his own property and unleashed dogs that wander freely.
Birston said the increased use of the O’Connor Drive property is directly linked to Shuniah’s decision in the mid 1990s to prevent members of the public from using municipally owned lands on nearby Birch Beach.
The suit says a group of O’Connor Drive property owners spoke to Shunia council in 1998 to voice their concerns. Shuniah official ignored the request.
Since that time several requests to limit access to the municipally owned lands have been made.
In 2007 the Shuniah council commissioned a planning opinion report for the use of the public land in question. In the report Manahan Consulting said the 0.27 hectare property should only be categorized as a neighbourhood park facility, “capable of meeting the needs of an immediate neighbourhood only.”
At the time it was concluded in a report by Shuniah officials that “O’Connor Point is not a community park in any form of definition and should only be considered a neighbourhood park.”
The lawsuit states the township has not taken appropriate steps to stop known nuisances to O’Connor Drive residents. It also states Shuniah officials have failed to control the use of its property and done nothing to stop damage, theft and nuisance.
Birston says he and the other plaintiffs have suffered loss of enjoyment of life, decreased property values, personal inconvenience, loss of reasonable use and enjoyment of their lands and that the defendant has acted in a “callous, high-handed and inappropriate fashion,” by failing to curb public use of its land.
According to the statement of claim, Shuniah officials have 20 days to announce its intention to fight the lawsuit.
Shuniah CAO Eric Collingwood was not immediately available Thursday afternoon for comment. Shuniah Reeve Maria Harding declined comment, stating a conflict of interest.
