The Village of Point Edward is looking to enact a public parks bylaw, which would include nightly closures, in order to avoid the possibility of an encampment being erected.
A draft "Respecting Public Parks" bylaw was presented during Tuesday evening's council meeting.
Village staff contacted OPP but were informed the police agency could not do anything about the situation unless a bylaw existed.
"So if we close the park, say from midnight to 4 a.m. or something like that, then the police have the right to go in and tell people to leave. It can be selective enforcement, so if there's somebody down there fishing at 3 a.m., police are likely not going to bother that person," said Village Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Jim Burns. "I understand this opens up a nasty can of worms but if we want to be sure that police can deal with people setting up campsites in our park grounds… they're telling us that we need to pass a bylaw."
Burns clarified that if parks are closed on a nightly basis, rules would also apply to the parking lot and would allow police to investigate suspicious vehicles parked overnight.
"This isn't because we're having a problem with the park, this is specifically geared towards what we were told to do to ensure that we don't get an encampment," said Mayor Bev Hand.
Burns said the draft document was modelled after the City of Sarnia's parks bylaw.
"I think we should move on this sooner than later," said Deputy Mayor Greg Grimes.
Several minor alterations, such as word usage, were suggested for the document.
"We don't really have a bathing beach and I was just wondering if we should change 'bathing beach' to 'waterfront,'" Grimes said. "It says you can't do anything on a bathing beach that would offend people, so if we just change it to waterfront, I think it captures our whole area."
Grimes also suggested changing the closure of public parks from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m., to 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., which would align with the Village's overnight street parking bylaw.
Burns said recommended changes will be made to the draft bylaw and the document will return to council for further consideration at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 25.
A homeless encampment at Sarnia's Rainbow Park has been a controversial topic over the past few months, with questions looming on how to properly tackle the situation. Sarnia City Council decided in early May to develop an encampment protocol.