OSOYOOS TIMES-April 21, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
The Town of Osoyoos has abandoned a proposed water zoning bylaw.
Mayor Stu Wells said after a great deal of discussion during a closed meeting on April 16, council eventually decided to scrap the bylaw, which received first reading on March 1.
Wells said the reason for abandoning the bylaw was because the Town “had underestimated the impact (the bylaw would have) on local residents and non-local property owners.”
He added that a public hearing on March 15, where it became obvious to the Town that the public wanted more information about the proposed policy, a public information session held by the Town on March 30 where a number of people voiced their opposition to the concept and several letters from residents and non-residents were the main factors behind the decision to abandon the bylaw.
Wells also told the Osoyoos Times last month that he felt the bylaw was “a little heavy-handed and onerous.”
The proposed bylaw would have established three water use zones (W1, W2 and W3).
It would have removed existing commercial marina zoning and added site-specific permitted uses to allow marinas at Lions Park, the Holiday Inn and the Safari Beach Resort.
It also included a “definition” section to help interpret the new bylaw, which distinguished between terms like “moorage facility,” “group moorage facility” and “moorage structure.”
If the bylaw had been approved, the maximum number of slips for a private moorage facility as set out in the W1 zoning would be three.
A group moorage facility would have been limited to one slip per property and private property owners would have only been allowed to have one private moorage buoy per adjacent waterfront parcel.
Private moorage buoys would not have been permitted in front of public lands and commercial businesses like boat rentals would have been permitted to operate from a pier.
The W2 zone addressed strata water use
Permitted uses for this zoning included boating, recreational water activities and strata moorage facilities, but the zoning would have provided the Town with greater powers in the approval process of future strata moorage applications – which would require a rezoning process.
The W3 zone was specifically for marinas.
Wells said council will still look at certain aspects of the now-defunct bylaw in the future.
He said it’s important to establish some kind of zoning for the rental of watercraft such as Jet Skis and some kind of limit is still needed for private docking.
Limiting property owners to one buoy per lot was unfair, Wells said, since some residents have family who come to visit who bring their own boats or personal watercraft.
“The need is higher.”
But allowing private property owners to have six boats moored off their property would be unfair to their neighbours, he added.
The next step in dealing with water zoning issues, Wells said, is to have “full-on public consultation with all the stakeholder groups.”
“We need to do a better job with the public.”
Coun. Ted Cronmiller said he came into the April 16 meeting ready to abandon the bylaw.
“We have to remember we’re a destination resort community,” he said, adding he wants the Town to go back to the community to work out a fair and appropriate way of regulating activities and docking issues on Osoyoos Lake.
“We have to get something to preserve the lake and the recreation it provides.”
Cronmiller also said it’s important for the Town to work with other governments who share in the use of the lake, such as the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen and the Osoyoos Indian Band, to come up with such policies.
[email protected]
