Here’s What’s Happening With LaSalle Park Marina in Burlington

Published March 27, 2019 at 7:59 pm

The LaSalle Park Marina in Burlington has seen some changes over the years and, according to a recent 

The LaSalle Park Marina in Burlington has seen some changes over the years and, according to a recent blog post on Mayor Marianne Meed Ward’s website, more changes may soon be on the way. 

The marina was first established back in 1981 by the volunteer LaSalle Park Marina Association (LPMA). 

“Its 219 slips were originally protected by a floating tire wave break that was replaced in 1998 by a floating steel tube version,” reads the blog post. 

“Under a joint venture agreement (JV) with the City of Burlington, a group borrows from the city for a project and repays the funding over a decade.”

More recently, however, (March 4, 2019) at a committee of the whole meeting, the future operation of the LaSalle Park Marina and the need for a new wave break was discussed. 

The purpose of a floating wave break, according to a document from the city, is to reduce the wave height of incident waves (outside of the basin) so that waves inside the basin are within acceptable limits. 

At the meeting, the committee voted to move forward with a request for proposal to replace the wave break at LaSalle Park Marina and to look at alternate funding options.

This was later approved at a council meeting on March 25, 2019. 

Here, according to the blog post, is Meed Ward’s take on the situation.

“My concern always wasn’t about whether we should have a marina or not, I think that was a misinterpretation of my views. I think boating in this location is great; the public boat launch in this location is great, the able sail program, the many public activities that happen there and the marina being an operator that has participated in that with us. 

This has never been whether we should have a marina or boating function down at this park, for me personally. This was always about what type of marina, how big it was going to be, what type of wave break and how we were going to pay for it. 

And those are legitimate questions for any decision-making body to ask and to have a conversation about and to do it all in an environmentally-friendly way with consultation from our community, including the folks that raised very legitimate concerns that the minister of the environment at the time took into account around the impact on not only the flora and fauna, but the trumpeter swans in that location. We heard how rare and unique that population is and how lucky we are to have them here.

So, I’m happy where we’ve landed in terms of the floating wave break option, the fact that it will not be an expanded marina; but I do think we do need to look at those options for alternative governance and funding.”

It is expected that in the spring and summer of this year a floating wave break will be manufactured and installed at the marina. 

Click here for more information and to stay up to date with the LaSalle Park Marina Wave Break Project.

Photo is courtesy of the Burlington Bay website.

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