Blocked beach access irks group
Residents say province failing to enforce rules against docks, other lakeshore obstacles
Unobstructed public access along Kelowna’s lakeshore should become a provincial election issue, a new lobby group says.
The government isn’t doing enough to enforce rules against improperly constructed docks, fences and retaining walls that prevent people from walking on the beach between Mission Creek and City Park, an Abbott Street resident says.
Al Janusas says he’s heard from dozens of people who share his concern in just the few weeks since he and a few friends formed Pandosy Lakeshore Active Neighbourhoods.
“The response has been incredible, overwhelming really,” Janusas said Sunday.
“What it tells me is that there’s a lot of pent-up frustration among the citizens of Kelowna that this situation has existed for so many decades without anybody doing anything about it,” Janusas said.
Candidates running in the May provincial election should be quizzed about their willingness to hire more staff at the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Resource Operations to ensure public access exists between the high- and low-water marks of B.C. lakes, Janusas said.
Although that right of public access exists, in many places it is thwarted by No Trespassing signs, docks without the required staircases on either side, and fences that extend from private property right into the water, Janusas says.
Janusas, a retired Toronto firefighter who moved to Kelowna two years ago and lives in a home on the non-waterfront side of Abbott Street, says he was dismayed to find the provincial government wasn’t doing much to ensure unrestricted public access to public beaches.
“I’ve been told by government officials that the reason enforcement isn’t being done is simply because they don’t have the resources to do so,” Janusas said. “I find that surprising, especially considering Kelowna is the biggest city in the Interior.”
Kelowna has 32 kilometres of shoreline within its city limits, about one-third of which is formally designated as public parkland. But the area between the high- and low-water marks in most places along the waterfront is Crown land.
The City of Kelowna has budgeted $150,000 this year to develop, in partnership with the province, a long-term shoreline management plan from Mission Creek to Rotary Beach.