Letter from Brian Burchill re: Town Property Extending From South End of Parsons Road to the Foreshore

To Mayor and Council Town of View Royal

Re: Town Property Extending From South End of Parsons Road to the Foreshore

For Council's Consideration

My property, 120 Parsons Road, shares the entire western boundary of the Town's strip of land from the south end of Parsons Road to the Millstream estuary. The town's land is traversed by a deep ravine flanked by a ridge..

To access the estuary would require descending a steep slope into the ravine, crossing the 20-30 foot wide bottom of the ravine, which is a bed of mud, ascending the steep opposite slope out of the ravine to get over the ridge, and then descending the south slope of the ridge to reach the estuary's foreshore.

The terrain is every bit as rugged as the terrain that the Town has been reluctant to allow the public to access to at the sound end of the Duffus Trail. It would be inconsistent if the Town were to encourage public access to the foreshore via this strip of land.

As for value of such access, the foreshore itself includes a vertical, eroding bank, from which tall conifers lean, in their progression to fall into the estuary. They very effectively block views of the estuary itself. The quality of what can been seen at and from the shoreline is so wanting that, in search of something of interest, the public would be mightily tempted to wander onto the private land to the east of the Town's land because that private land is more attractive due to being essentially level and it has a pre-existing trail is still visible and useable. Even if the views from this land were good, was could be seen is already visible by way of already-existing foreshore accesses.

An issue that would arise if this land were to be used for public access to the estuary is lack of room for more parking on Parsons Road. A further issue that could arise is that because the south slope facing the estuary is so secluded, it could become popular as a place for some people to partake in undesirable activities. Any fire that got out of control there would have little distance to travel before it would be on my property and/or the property to the east.

For all of the above reasons, I request that Council choose to not promote foreshore access for the public via the strip of land at the south end of Parsons Road.

With thanks for your consideration, Brian Burchill