I think the PECO decks (at the former Kootenay Forest Products site) should be preserved as an Industrial Heritage Site as the last infrastructure remains of Nelson’s logging/mill history. They should be given minimum upgrades to at least the safety standard of the public wharf at the Prestige Inn. Maybe put in some benches and a small simple shade/rain gazebo structure as a public space along a proper waterfront trail, not those little mud/pea gravel overgrown footpaths. Then you’d have a real waterfront project with a few interesting sites and destinations. Needless to say, the days of clothing optional status at Red Sands are numbered; the issue doesn’t even have to be raised.
Council could give the developer an incentive to put his hotel on west Baker Street (e.g. the Savoy) and create a hotel district. Crown land gets cleaned up and half or two-thirds goes to a community land trust and the other half or third to green space to waterfront trail and Red Sands buffer. Now you start to have a community oriented waterfront rather than a developer oriented waterfront. I can’t believe how Nelson is literally 30 or 40 years behind in waterfront planning.
Nelson is too small a town to spread the downtown commercial focus into the furthest reaches of residential neighbourhoods. Baker Street businesses need as much non-resident foot traffic as possible.
David Sorensen and local contractors can still make buckets of money and Nelson can have a real waterfront and downtown.
Donovan Carter, Victoria