Blue Jays bless Rutland ballfields
For the second time in nine months, Summerland council has sunk a developer’s plans to build a new dock along the waterfront in Trout Creek.
Kelowna-based Kerkhoff: Develop-Build was in front of council Monday night seeking a development variance permit for a 28-slip dock extending 108 metres into Okanagan Lake off its 45-unit Lakehouse project on Landry Crescent.
The company revised its plans after council in July 2023 rejected its first proposal for a 45-slip dock extending 121 m into the lake. The second proposal met the same fate Monday night with a 4-2 vote to deny the permit. Opposing votes were cast by Couns. Marty Van Alphen and Janet Peake.
Coun. Richard Barkwill suggested the “overwhelming opposition” that emerged following the July 2023 proposal hasn’t yet abated.
“No one I’ve spoken to has told me that the scaling down of this dock makes any difference. It’s still huge. People put it into things that they can relate to, well, it’s longer than a football field out there, and it results in a huge amount of additional boat traffic… and all these things are developing a sort of cumulative effect, and at some point we have to say enough is enough,” said Barkwill.
“The nature of Summerland is not the nature of some resort communities like Lake Havasu (in the U.S.) where you can walk across the lake from one boat to another. That’s not the sort of community that we are.”
Noting separate and past council decisions to deny a similar dock outside the Oasis condominium development, Mayor Doug Holmes said buyers need to understand that boat parking isn’t a right on what is an increasingly busy Okanagan Lake.
“I think it needs to be clear that when people buy into properties on the lakeshore that are a higher density that there can’t be an expectation that you have your own private boat slip that goes with it,” said Holmes.
“The two just can’t work together. It’s just not sustainable.”
While acknowledging those concerns, Coun. Marty Van Alphen suggested the new dock would give the district some control over moorage in the Landry Crescent area.
“I look at this maybe with the vision that it’s one dock servicing a complete neighbourhood… versus individual docks up and down the lake in that area,” said Van Alphen.
Ahead of the vote, Scott Beuerlein, who spoke on behalf of Kerkhoff: Develop-Build, was asked why the company didn’t seek council’s blessing for a dock back when the group originally approved the Lakehouse subdivision in 2022.
Scott Beuerlein explained the company couldn’t actually apply to the province – which has the final say – to build the dock until the upland strata development was completed.
The 2022 subdivision plan “did show a dock on it but it had a clear notation saying ‘future approval required’ or something along those lines,” added Beuerlein.
“The intent was shown from the very beginning.”
Besides scaling back the number of slips and the length of the proposed dock, Kerkhoff: Develop-Build also sweetened the pot in its second proposal by offering one of the boat slips at no charge to the Summerland Fire Department and promising $50,000 to the District of Summerland for environmental upgrades around the dock.
The Toronto Blue Jays are helping to improve a popular Kelowna baseball complex.
Upgrades worth almost $150,000 to the diamonds at Edith Gay Park in Rutland were announced Tuesday.
Improvements will include dugout extensions, better bleachers, a fence extension, backstop padding, and features to make it easier for people with disabilities to get around.
The work will begin this week and be complete by next April.
“We are very excited about having this work finalized and seeing the kids hit the upgraded field,” Daryle Assman of the Central Okanagan Minor Baseball Association said in a release. “This is going to be a massive improvement for our field and the safety of players and spectators.”
Through its Field of Dreams program, the Jays Care Foundation is providing a grant of $72,500 with the city in partnership with COMBA contributing an equal amount.