Lake Country decides against ban on new docks

A controversial plan to ban future docks at the south end of Kalamalka Lake has been rejected by Lake Country town council.

Instead, council is likely to impose a marine speed limit of five km/h, and declare a no-wake zone, to try to ensure sand and silt doesn’t get into a water intake pipe.

“We’ve decided to take another look at this issue,” Mayor James Baker said Wednesday. “Everyone agreed we have to protect the quality of our drinking water,” Baker said.

“The challenge is to do so in a way that’s effective without being seen to target people who own or might want to build docks in the future,” Baker said.

More than 70 people packed into a Lake Country public hearing on Tuesday night to register their opposition to staff’s original plan. It would have banned new docks, and prevented the replacement of existing ones, along a three-kilometre stretch of shore at the southwest corner of the lake.

The rationale in trying to curb future boat activity was that wave action may kick up silt and potential contaminants from the shallow lake bed, with those materials finding their way into an intake for the town’s drinking water system.

Speakers at the public hearing questioned the scientific evidence for such an assertion, suggested the dock ban would significantly lower property values and proposed a low marine speed limit would have the desired effect of reducing water churning in the bay.

Council agreed there should have been more public consultation by the town before the dock ban was brought forward for consideration, Baker said.

Asked if council’s decision to send the matter back to staff for review and revision represented a victory for waterfront property owners, Baker said: “Well, it’s a victory in terms of community engagement in the formulation of our bylaws.”