Paradise Park News

To The Paradise Park Owners,

This letter is to clarify the status of our dock permit and re-development project that has been ongoing for the last two years. From a recent posting on Facebook there appears to be some confusion and concern by some Owners over this project.

 

 

Firstly, you must appreciate that this has been a very long process requiring difficult navigation through the bureaucratic Provincial and Town permitting/rezoning procedures. In addition, as with most building approval requests, you need  to complete an application with your requirements, submit it, then wait to see if it will be approved. Currently, we do not have final sign off from either the Province or the Town so at this time there is no absolute guarantee that we will be successful.  However, we have made excellent progress with the Provincial authorities and have a commitment of approval  from them subject to completion of 5 outstanding items (detailed in the AGM package). Also, the Town of Osoyoos Planning Department just informed me this week that they have accepted our rezoning application and will be recommending it to Town Council for approval. If the Town Council passes our rezoning application, then completion of our dock permit and re-development will be possible and changes to the dock will hopefully be made this summer.

The document that we have been working to throughout this process is the June 2013 “Environment Impact Assessment for Re-Development of a Dock at Paradise Park” report.  The Owners were advised on this report and it was posted in the clubhouse for the Owners reference. It has not been practical to forward the subsequent hundreds of pages of documentation to the Owners. I can assure you that the Board has been pursuing the dock re-development as per the approved AGM resolutions on this project.

The following points summarize the information to date:

1. Why develop the dock?
   • the current dock has the wrong permit (Special Permission for a Private Moorage) and zoning (W2, Private Moorage usage which is typically for a residential lot) for our usage
   • a large portion of the dock is not usable because it is in shallow water or no water.
   • the existing dock exceeds the zoning (W2) for size, thus no opportunity for changes
   • the dock is inadequate in both size and layout for our current and future needs
2. What will we achieve if we are successful in obtaining the correct permit/tenure and rezoning?
   • the Park will have legal approval to have up to 10 dock moorage slips and 15 buoys (currently we do not have legal approval for moorage slips or buoys)
   • the correct permit/tenure gives the Park legal rights (10 year tenure) for the lake area the dock occupies.
   • both the new permit and rezoning (W3, Group/Strata Moorage) will allow the Park to move the dock to deeper water (30 feet out) and add fingers to the dock as per the submitted plan (allowing up to 10 moorage slips) 
   • the Park will have the option to add fingers or not but the dock cannot exceed the submitted plan.
3. Summary of major project events.
   • Apr, 2013 –approved AGM resolution to hire consultant, Brain Jantz, to submit applications for permit/tenure  and rezoning. Also, AGM approval for a dock re-development plan.
   • Jul, 2013- permit/tenure application submitted to the Provincial authorities ( Environment Impact Assessment for Re-Development of a Dock at Paradise Park report). Project Update sent to the Owners and posted on the Website.
   • Apr, 2014- Provincial authorities requested further clarification on our application so a “Revised Development Plan and request for Variation for the Re-Development of a Dock at Paradise Park” report was submitted. This and a general dock update was provided at the 2014 AGM.
   • Jan, 2015- received confirmation from the Provincial authorities that our permit/tenure application would be approved subject to completion of five outstanding items, the most difficult and critical was the rezoning to W3 by the Town of Osoyoos.
   • Jan, 2015, submitted rezoning application and required background information to the Town of Osoyoos
   • Apr,2015, Town of Osoyoos Planning Department confirmed that they were supporting our W3 rezoning application and sending it to Council for 1^st and 2^nd reading on Apr/7, then a Public hearing later in Apr , and with a final 3^rd reading in May. The Town has advised me that if approved by Council we will be obtaining a W3 zoning that is site specific to Paradise Park and it will allow for both dock moorage (up to 10 slips) and buoys (15) which is what we have requested. 

I am very excited because we are finally close to achieving our dock permitting/rezoning goal. Having an appropriately approved and sized dock as well as approved buoy use will be a major long term asset and value for the Park and Owners.

The dock is a major agenda item for our upcoming AGM and I look forward to further discussion on this important Park project.

Sincerely
Randy North