A Lake Country couple was hit with a $60,000 fine after years of warnings from the province’s farm land regulator.

The Agricultural Land Commission described the owners as “non-cooperative” after issuing the fine in June. The owners delayed shutting down their small RV park for nearly three years, but they were already warned in 2019 against running the park, according to a decision provided by the commission.

From the first warning to the June 2026 fine, the ordeal lasted seven years as the commission wanted to return three acres of their Lake Country property to farm-use.

Tate and Salena Lamb first started setting up RV park in 2010, getting permits for RV hook-ups and septic tanks. They opened “Lake Country Farm & RV In The Sunny Okanagan” a year later, according to a business social media page.

The four-hectare property on Okanagan Centre Road East has a three-bedroom home and is almost entirely surrounded by vineyards and orchards.

The commission didn’t get involved until late-2018 when someone complained that some RVs on the 10 pads looked to be permanent.

More than half of the property is registered as agricultural land, but the owners weren’t farming it and didn’t have permission to use a portion for a tourism business.

The owners told the commission they planned to formally seek permission to run the business after their first warning, but that request never came. After numerous warnings starting in mid-2019, some threatening fines, the commission ordered the Lambs to return the land to its farming purpose.

That meant removing the RV pads, septic tanks, water lines and electrical connections. It also meant replacing gravel with soil and growing a crop.

The September 2023 order gave them eight months to have it done and another six months to have an agrologist report back on the job. For nearly three years, the commission periodically returned to find little, if any, progress and RVs often still parked on the site.

By May 2026, the owner had made progress, but the commission wasn’t satisfied. Its CEO Kim Grout said after seven years since the first warning, the owner’s delays were “deliberate.”

The commission estimated the Lambs earned at least $72,000 by continuing to rent RV spots after the 2023 shutdown order, but added they also have nearly $24,000 in various outstanding District of Lake Country bylaw fines.

They were given until early-July to pay the commission’s $60,000 fine or appeal the decision.

It’s not clear whether the fine has been paid, but there’s no record of an appeal on the commission website.