Outdoor bar should be shut down, regional district directors to hear

Drinking on the beach at Lake Okanagan Resort should no longer be allowed, directors of the Central Okanagan Regional District will hear Thursday.

Staff recommend directors not support an application by the owners of the Okanagan Beach Club to renew a provincial permit that allows for the outdoor sale and consumption of alcohol at the Tiki and Taco Bar.

The renewal is also opposed by West Kelowna RCMP, who say the business has generated numerous complaints.

“Over the past five years, West Kelowna RCMP have received 169 calls for service at the resort,” Staff-Sgt. Duncan Dixon writes in a report attached to Thursday’s regional board agenda.

“A number of these concerns relate specifically to Lake Okanagan Tiki Beach Bar such as noise complaints, impaired boating, vehicles parked blocking the fire lane, and in one case a report of someone snorting cocaine off the tiki-bar itself,” Dixon writes.

“Due to the remote location and size of the crowds often seen at the tiki-bar, West Kelowna RCMP are not in an ideal position to deal safely and effectively with any large crowd control or alcohol-related occurrence that may be encountered at the Lake

Okanagan Resort and more specifically at the tiki-bar,” Dixon writes in a letter opposing extension of the permit that permits outdoor service of alcohol.

Lake Okanagan Resort, developed in the 1970s, covers 300 acres off Westside Road. There are permanent and seasonal accommodations, and the property’s zoning permits a marina, clubhouse, and restaurant, with the Okanagan Beach Club being an outdoor extension of the restaurant.

In the report to directors, regional staff also describe what they say are ongoing operational problems at the resort: “In the last five years, both the RCMP and the Wilsons Landing Fire Department have experienced an increase in the number of calls for service to Lake Okanagan Resort. Bylaw services has also responded to various complaints including noise, open fires, overflowing garbage (attracting nuisance bears) and COVID-19 public health orderrelated offences.”

The regional board can only provide a recommendation on whether the permit for the outdoor sale and consumption of alcohol at the Okanagan Beach Club should be renewed. Final decision rests with the provincial liquor licensing and cannabis branch.

Operators of the Okanagan Beach Club did not respond Tuesday to a phone call, text or email.