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Wasaga, darling, we need to talk.

It's difficult to discuss this so openly, but a recent visit underscored the need to say something. It seems that you've reached that age, and seismic changes loom on your Georgian Bay horizon. It's best you prepare for the storm before the calm.

I suppose we should have expected it. People love you. Each year, two million visitors, many of them day-trippers from Toronto, trek to your 14-kilometre beach (the longest lake beach in the world, no less), shelling out $2 an hour for parking, merely to have the honour of your sunny, splashy company.

Now, it seems you've caught the eye of Big Business, and no expense is being spared in planning your marital bed.

The fire on your aging waterfront mall last November sped up the process, to be certain. The 1940s buildings were to be demolished in a couple of years. Their overnight razing left a hole in your bland beach strip of surf-wear shops, lewd-towel merchants, fast-food joints and late-night patios.

Mayor Cal Patterson says the proposed development will be a major boon for the town. The current (and I must say, unpleasant) construction zone at the corner of Beach and Main Streets is morphing into an entertainment area. (Yes, it was all meant to be up and running by now, but your fans will understand. I'm told that the performance dome and games arcade will be open by August.)

It's part of a three-year plan to turn that section of the strip into a mini Bourbon Street, and eventually expand it with a neighbouring all-season theme park called Blue Planet, à la the Edmonton Mall. Lord knows why people would want to go skating in the middle of summer, but who am I to question?

And so it will continue until, 10 years hence, you will be transformed. At least, that's what Blue Beach Avenue Corp. hopes. That's your admirer, dear. The redevelopment proposal put forward by Vaughan-based Dov and Armand Levy, Wasaga Beach's largest property owners, packs a mighty $350-million punch, and includes hotels, condos, a conference centre and more.

Of course, no one knows yet how they're going to fund it. The Wasaga Beach Council is still waiting to receive a detailed business and financial plan from your suitors.

Regardless, Mr. Patterson is probably right when he says redevelopment of some kind is unavoidable.

Not everyone is happy with the current plan. Some people are sad that your famed driving strip beside the beach will be closed. Others are already getting nostalgic about the disappearing small-town feel (although any close inspection would find much of the beach strip to be soulless. Really, a beauty salon called Get Nailed on the Beach? And when the temperature hits the 27-degree realm, as it did the other day, the least you could do is empty the trash).

But it's not a fait accompli yet, ma chérie. If council finds the plans are amenable, the whole shebang goes to community consultation, so you do get some say in things.

Your twee little town motto may turn out to be prophetic. “The beach is just the beginning,” eh? Well, now you must decide what that long, languid beach will lead to.

I know Niagara Falls seems like a glamorous role model, with all of the cash and lights and arcades and, well, cash.

But you have much to offer too: Your delightful shallow beach is a protected provincial park; your town offers cheesy minigolf, tacky souvenirs and ice-cream sundaes served in kitchen sinks; and there's that schooner, the HMS Nancy – sunk by the dastardly Americans in the War of 1812 – that now forms a wee historical island in the Nottawasaga River.

The early-morning strolls along your beach, the lingering sunsets, the drunken fumblings behind the Copa Cabana: You have a charm that is long lost at the Falls. Hold onto it, nurture it, and you might just avoid being turned into the cookie-cutter wife of a would-be developer.

Now is the time to forge your own path, dear. Go to it.