A small park in Paris is stirring up a big controversy in its neighbourhood.
Bean Park is located in the southeastern part of town, along the Grand River.
It’s generally a quiet area, but over the years more and more operators of canoeing, kayaking and rafting businesses have discovered the park and started using it as a launching pad.
Area resident Jim Tomblin says it’s time something is done to dissuade the businesses.
“Everybody on the street has just got fed up with it,” he says.
“It’s just grown and grown and grown.”
Other residents complain about traffic congestion, inadequate parking and a lack of washrooms in a park that was never expected to handle so many visitors.
“People felt it was destroying their local park, which is a passive park,” says Brant County Coun. Murray Powell.
“It wasn’t designed to handle this level of commercialization.”
Chad Pottruff co-owns Grand River Rafting, which has grown substantially since he started it in 2005.
“We started with four rafts our first year, and we might have done 700 to 1,000 people,” he tells CTV News.
“This season, by the end of October, we’re probably going to see closer to 20,000 people.”
Pottruff says he sympathizes with neighbours who don’t like having their view of the river blocked, and notes his vessels launch out of the Paris Dam instead when water levels are high enough to permit it.
In response to neighbours’ concerns, Brant County recently began charging outfitters a registration fee.
Pottruff says he’s on board with the fees, even though they cost Grand River Rafting more than $3,000 this year and will cost them double that in 2014 when a phase-in is complete.
“I’m perfectly happy to pay it,” he says.
But some are concerned that the fees aren’t high enough to deter anyone from using Bean Park.
“If you look at what they pay for fees, it might be $3,500 per season, but their revenue could be $350,000,” says Powell.
County officials have also added a bylaw officer shift on Saturdays to monitor the situation at the launch stations.
