Back-and-forth battle over Burl’s Creek continues

A bylaw for camping and parking on the piece of land at Burl's Creek along Line 7 in Oro-Medonte has been repealed. (Heather Butts / CTV Barrie)

The battle over a pair of big summer shows at Burl’s Creek continues, those who don’t want the shows say they’ll continue to fight while organizers says they are not concerned.

In an effort to clarify the issue over temporary use bylaws at Burl’s Creek, the Oro-Medonte council decided to wipe the slate clean, reversing a temporary use bylaw.

“The bylaw wasn’t actually legal because there was a process in the planning act that we missed so it was never legal, so just to clear up matters we did repeal it,” says Oro-Medonte Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough.

The temporary use bylaw was request in 2014 by the previous owners of Burl’s Creek, allowing parking and camping on a piece of land along the 7^th Line.

While Hough sees this as a simple housekeeping issue, the group opposed to the summer music festivals see this as a step in the right direction.

“It’s a big step but would we consider it a win? It’s too early to say. We’ve got other thing we’re working with, with our lawyers and we’re confident that our community will be heard and things will go forward,” says Ann Honeywood with ‘Save Oro.”

Those things include trying to have the WayHome Festival in July and the Boots and Hearts Festival in August stopped.

The owners of Burl’s Creek and Republic Live, the company producing the two music festivals, tell CTV News aren’t concerned about the repeal of the bylaw, their events will not be impacted at all.

But there is still one bylaw up for question, the owners of Burl’s Creek have applied for their own temporary use bylaw for the same piece of land and a few others that would be used for camping and parking. That bylaw is still waiting to be passed.

“If that does not pass then they cannot legally use the newly acquired lands for camping and parking,” added Hough.

As for the concerts, they are being held on a portion of land that was zoned for country music concerts in 1989 and will not be impacted.

As it stands now, the ‘Save Oro’ group says they’ll continue to push forward with legal action to stop these concerts from happening. Festival organizers say these festivals are going forward as planned.