Want to buy a beach?
Locals fighting to keep Naramata landmark open to the public forever
Community members in Naramata are showing it takes a village to save a beach.
Efforts are underway to raise $850,000 by Oct. 31 to help purchase a prime piece of Naramata beachfront property.
The land is one of three parcels owned by the Naramata Centre Society on that stretch of beach.
It’s just under one acre in size and contains much of Centre Beach, a place Miranda Halladay of the Naramata Slow Cittaslow Community Group calls the heart of the community.
The Naramata Centre Society has made the land available to the public for over 70 years but has now put it on the market. It has been assessed at over $2 million.
Naramata Slow has been working in conjunction with the Centre Society and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen to purchase the land for of $1.7 million in a partnership agreement.
The remainder of the cost would be picked up by the RDOS through the municipal borrowing fund, according to Halladay.
By the start of October, the community group had raised $400,000 and launched a crowdfunding campaign at the same time to get the remainder, but has so far raised just over $100,000.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s going really well, actually, Thanksgiving was a very good weekend for us,” said Halladay.
“It’s really evident how little undeveloped waterfront is available to the community now, so to have that remain in perpetuity as a park is vitally important.
“There’s a dying breed of access, so for us I think it would be very heartbreaking to have your kids walk by there 10 years from now and say, ‘I remember when we used to go there and jump off the dock.’”
Karla Kozakevich, the RDOS director for Naramata, is on board with the effort.
“It is important to maintain green space in the community, but in particular when you have land at the water with a beach that was sold and a private residence put in, it’s pretty much gone forever, so if we can retain that for the community I think that’s really important,” she said.
“We do have other parkland in the community, but this piece has been owned by the centre for 70 years and they’ve always been really good with the community, they’ve allowed the public to utilize their private property.”
Naramata Centre chair Kathy Hamilton likes the idea, too.
“Our extensive history of facilitating community, personal growth, and care aligns with the mission of our organization as well as that of Naramata Slow,” said Hamilton.
“Partnering with the local community to preserve Centre Beach for generations to come is exactly what we hope to achieve.”
The community to attempt to preserve the land for public use is reminiscent of a battle last century to secure nearby Manitou Park.
“I think (Centre Beach) has the potential to be our generation’s Manitou that was left to the community about a 100 years ago, and I think it’s time for us to step up and do the same,” said Halladay.
To donate online, visit www.wayblaze.com and search for Naramata.
The non-profit Naramata Centre’s transformation began in 2014, when approximately 30 unionized staff went on strike after reaching an impasse while negotiating a new collective agreement.
They never went back to work, and the centre announced it was closing permanently in January 2015.
It reopened in May 2016 with a slimmeddown mandate that moved away from fullservice conferences towards the broader array of programs on offer now.
In between, it also hosted Syrian refugees, and some parts of the property were put up for sale.