The South Beach Working Group continues its efforts to preserve the community of Kaslo’s beloved unofficial park.
During the April 22 council meeting Jim Holland presented on behalf of the group, urging the Village of Kaslo to retain its road allowances within the privately owned property known as South Beach and use them to create public access to South Beach. As it stands, the public is technically trespassing.
“The first step should be to designate Village-owned properties at South Beach to be ‘Parks and Natural Areas,’ with the mandate expressed in the [Official Community Plan] to enhance and protect these areas,” he said.
Holland detailed a few options to connect the road allowances with trails and roads to create public access to South Beach. One includes restoring the old Mirror Lake/Kaslo Wagon Road as a link from Birch Avenue to Kaslo River. Others involve two new trails accessing the north of South Beach via Third Street, and potentially creating an access on H and/or I Avenues.
“Preserving this area on behalf of Village residents, Area D residents, and visitors to Kaslo will create a prized legacy for the community, and deliver social, cultural, environmental, and economic benefits in perpetuity,” said Holland.
In a document included in the agenda, the South Beach Working Group said it has “secured significant funding to support this proposal to preserve South Beach as a public area, free of development.”
Council will consider the working group’s proposal before taking any further action.
The fate of South Beach was recently in the lurch. Landowner Dale Unruh’s company, Quality Property Developments, made a proposal to build an RV park, to which many community members expressed fervent opposition.
There would be many steps along the way before the plan could be realized, but the first would be a land exchange: the Village would sell the road allowances within South Beach to QP Developments, and purchase some of QP’s land in the riparian area along Kaslo River. Without these road allowances, QP would be unable to rezone, subdivide, and proceed with any development.
In February, council turned down QP’s RV park proposal and the accompanying land exchange. However, it welcomed the developer to bring forward a revised plan that accommodates more of council’s – and the community’s – wishes for the land. The Village has not yet announced whether or not it’s received an alternate proposal.
