City takes control of Sutherland Bay
by Wayne Moore - Castanet Media
The City of Kelowna has taken control of Sutherland Bay - at least for the next 10 years.
The city has received an expanded License of Occupation from the province for the waters in Sutherland Bay for the next 10 years.
The License of Occupation means the city has the right to move boats illegally moored in the Bay.
The new licensing area is about double the size of the previous area and is expanded to the west further into Okanagan Lake.
The expanded area totals approximately 22.08 hectares.
City Property Manager Ron Forbes says for a number of years the city has had trouble with transient moorage in the bay, mostly with houseboats.
"Some of the challenges have been things such as unlicensed vessels being there, people living on the boats, disrupting the neighbourhood especially in the summer, interfering with the movement of other vessels from the boat launch into the area, occasional interruption of the Tolko site and their commercial operation, and reports or concerns about disposal of wastewater in inappropriate ways."
Forbes says the city has worked with the province to try and find a mechanism to enforce relocation or removal of the vessels.
If council approves the application (it passed unanimously), Forbes says staff will "put in place a letter to the existing occupants in the bay advising them they can no longer moor overnight in the area and will have to find other accommodation for their vessels."
"We hope for voluntary compliance from those vessel owners, and enforce over a period of time if they are not compliant."
Forbes adds there are moorage and stowage opportunities available on and around the lake.
"There are options available to vessels that are in there today, and staff are working on two other day moorage options for people who are out during the day and need temporary boat slips to come visit the downtown," adds Forbes.
"One is a budget submission for 2012 and another one will be the replacement and reconstruction of the Kelowna Marina area next to the Fintry Queen."
Back in February, an unoccupied houseboat moored in Sutherland Bay caught fire and went up in flames.
Then, at the end of February, the city issued eviction notices to about a dozen boats, claiming its water-zone extended to the middle of the lake.
Several boats moored in Sutherland Bay had relocated from Gellatly Bay after they were evicted by the District of West Kelowna.