Trailer park residents make their pitch to politicians to forestall land sale

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Residents of a municipally owned seasonal trailer park in Elgin County are pushing back against a council decision to declare the park surplus and any sale that could result.

Port Glasgow Trailer Park – about 70 kilometres southwest of London – belongs to the municipality of West Elgin. Park resident Adam Lumley spoke at a recent council meeting opposing the surplus designation that clears a path for the park’s sale.

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Lumley told politicians he had “strong feelings” about the municipality’s declaration, adding: “We’re citizens, we’re not surplus.”

Trailer park residents were caught off guard earlier this month by the unforeseen declaration, which would allow the municipality to sell the property. In an email to residents Nov. 4, the municipality said there has been no council decision to sell the property and it has not been listed for sale.

Although residents are unhappy with the surplus declaration, Lumley said they’re also taking issue with the way residents were informed about the decision, noting council made the announcement when residents had left for the season. The trailer park is open from May until October.

“I think the way the announcement came about, it kind of took the rug out from underneath us,” Lumley told council.

Lumley owns a home in London and lives at the trailer park about 90 per cent of the time it’s open. However, Lumley expressed concern for residents who call the trailer park home and rent residences elsewhere during months the park is closed, such as “snowbirds” who travel south.

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“If that land is pulled out from underneath those people and if that was to happen today, come May of next year, you guys have literally created a homeless situation for people in our park who are returning and have nowhere else to go,” Lumley told council.

A video feed of the meeting shows about a dozen people standing in a crowded doorway to council chambers.

“What a turnout,” West Elgin Mayor Richard Leathum said, at the beginning of the meeting,

Lumley estimated that of the 80 people in attendance including politicians, about 70 people showed up opposing the trailer park’s sale.

An online petition against the sale of the trailer park had accumulated 800 signatures by Friday afternoon.

The petition includes requests from trailer park residents, such as a temporary moratorium on any sale to provide the park time to organize and develop a plan for the park’s future, the opportunity to form a resident-owned cooperative and support for resident-led operations.

Lumley also touched on the “impact” the Port Glasgow Trailer Park has on the local economy, noting at minimum 300 residents are in the park at a time and extended family and guests draw even more visitors to the community. He surmised between 1,000 and 1,500 people are “in and out” of the park annually.

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Carman Lasson, a Port Glasgow resident, echoed Lumley’s assertion the local economy benefits from people visiting the park.

“All these people spend money in our community,” Lasson said, mentioning local restaurants, grocery retailers and its hardware store as getting a “boost” the months the trailer park is open.

Donna Klapak, chair of the Port Glasgow Trailer Park advisory committee, also spoke and expressed her surprise of the announcement.

“It would be a great loss to the residents of the municipality, both historically and financially, should the municipality sell the park,” Klapak said.

Politicians didn’t ask any questions of speakers, but West Elgin’s chief administrator Magda Badura said on Friday, “It is a difficult decision. We will be bringing forward background information to the next council meeting.”

Badura said council requested a “report from staff on how to proceed to the next step . . . with perhaps possible options.”

“Everything will be disclosed publicly,” she said.

Lumley said, after speaking with other residents, the outlook was more positive than two weeks ago when they learned of the decision to declare the park surplus.

“(Residents are) hopeful that they’re changing opinions and maybe even making (council) reconsider declaring it surplus in the first place without consulting anyone,” Lumley said Friday.

bwilliams@postmedia.com

@BrianWatLFPress

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada

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