TWO PROJECTS SHOW HOW TRICKY LAND USE CAN BE

(OSOYOOS TIMES — October 31, 2007) –

Two major South Okanagan projects are demonstrating in different ways just how tricky it is to walk the tightrope between development and taking care of our fragile environment.
First, Willow Beach. As if the developers of this proposed huge residential project at the head of Osoyoos Lake didn't have enough hurdles to jump over “ such as tough provincial riparian rules for floodplains and waterfront developments, and a lot of concern by Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) planners about the impact on the ecology “ the Town of Osoyoos has provided another one.
Osoyoos Council has come out against the project, saying it oversteps the rural Official Community Plan, the recently completed Regional Growth Strategy, and so-called 'Smart Growth' principles.
With RDOS already wondering if the mix of condos, townhouses, duplexes and single-family homes is too much for the Quintal family's former campground, mobile-home park, and farmland, the Willow Beach proponents will now be scrambling to assure everyone from Osoyoos to Penticton that they can have either a positive or at least neutral impact on the area's habitat. And all this is even before the provincial government gets involved, with its regulations about what can happen near waterways and on sensitive floodplains.
It may be that the project can be carried out with no harm, but that message hasn't gotten through yet to the people who matter.

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Second, the proposed South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park. The seven Okanagan Nation Indian bands say there's an impasse in their talks with Parks Canada. It doesn't help matters that in their communique the bands hint at using force to halt the park process “ suggesting the possiblity of direct action and the inability to avoid conflict.
Parks Canada has been talking with the bands for some time, but it points out that, while it acknowledges the possibility of future land claims, none of the land currently being earmarked for the national park is on a reserve.
First Nations should be partners in planning any park, but if the bands' desire is to see a 'First Nations Park', that would call for a more complicated process which would include the participation of the Aboriginal Land Claims Commissioner.