‘Ugly’ South Okanagan dock prompts request for regional district regulation

PENTICTON – An Osoyoos Lake resident wants to see the regional district provide regulations with respect to dock development on Osoyoos Lake following issues with a winery’s dock this summer.

Mike Greig sent a letter to the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen requesting zoning regulations for docks after finding there is no foreshore zoning on Osoyoos Lake outside the Town of Osoyoos.

The matter will come before the regional district board’s planning committee this week as a staff request to consider implementing such regulations as a strategic project in 2018.

Greig’s concerns stemmed from the recent construction of a dock by La Stella Winery, an act which he says resulted "in outrage” by neighbours because it is viewed as an incompatible commercial use with respect to the adjacent residential properties.

“It was granted permission to build a large, ugly dock structure and authorizes float plane and boat traffic to a winery in an area that is a quiet family use area,” Greig wrote.

Greig said the province granted the tenure with little regard for local recommendations, something he’d like to see changed.

“We were worried another issue like this might come up somewhere else on the lake and we’re hoping the regional district could spend a bit of effort to put together some kind of zoning for foreshore that might avert a future issue like this,” he said, adding he’d like to see regulations for something that right now, isn’t very well regulated.

Greig said he’d like to see meaningful public dialogue as part of the application.

“That’s the sort of thing we’d like to get out there. The whole objective was to see if we can get guidance out there so landowners would understand what locals will accept, and guidance in terms of what will be tolerated in that area, so when an application comes in the landowners and adjacent property owners will know what to expect.”

The matter is slated to come before the regional district board for information purposes at the Nov. 2 meeting.

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