The idea of a new marina has been floated, so to speak, but the head of the local residentsa国际传媒 association says no one should get too excited if they think they will be able to park their powerboat in Sutherland Bay.
While officials associated with Vernon-based Tolko Industries have discussed the possibility of a sa国际传媒 Yacht Club-style marina in Sutherland Bay as part of the mill redevelopment, the president of the sa国际传媒 Downtown Knox Mountain Residents鈥 Assoc颅iation says itsa国际传媒 not going to fly.
鈥淗ow do I say this, gently and politely? Probably, they don鈥檛 have a hope in hell of thinking that will happen,鈥 Ray Lewis said in an interview.
Lewis is part of a community liaison committee working on the North End neighbourhood plan and the topic of Sutherland Bay often comes up.
鈥淭here have been many discussions about Sutherland Bay because it is so shallow and what they could or could not do with it. Com颅munity-wide, theresa国际传媒 been a fairly big groundswell for it to be a non-powered aqua颅tic environment,鈥 he said.
The City of sa国际传媒 and Tolko both own a number of water licenses around Sutherland Bay, he noted.
鈥淭he city will probably utilize their water licenses to support a no-powered boat situation,鈥 Lewis predicted. 鈥淪o it will probably be paddle boards, kayaks. Anything without a motor will be allowed in the bay and anything with a motor would be excluded.鈥
Holar Developments, owned by Timber Investments, the family business that also owns Vernon-based Tolko, has floated the idea of a central plaza similar to those found in European cities, and surrounded by restaurants and shops.
鈥淭hey want it to be a destination and part of that destination element is they would like to be able to attract boat traffic in for a few hours,鈥 Lewis said. He said theresa国际传媒 also been discussion around a pier where boats could dock for a few hours and allow boaters to partake of local amenities.
鈥淧eople can sit, hang out, have a glass of wine or whatever. However, [the company] has been incredibly tight-lipped about what they are doing,鈥 he added.
The city conducted a large survey 16 months ago about development of Sutherland Park, 聽Knox Mountain in conjunction with the North End neighbourhood plan, he said.
鈥淎 very high percentage of people said the bay is [too] shallow. And there are so many concerns about the pollutants from the mill over decades,鈥 Lewis said. 鈥淭he Tolko team still has to do the environmental analysis of what debris and material is sitting under the log boom area, most of it natural, but of course, there is all kinds of other crap ending up in the lake.鈥
Lewis said dealing with the environmental issues is adilemma for anyone wanting to put in a pier or marina in Sutherland Bay.
鈥淒o they remove it? How do they do it? Do they 聽bury it with something? Do they leave it? If they do disturb it, what are they bringing up?鈥 he said. 鈥淗ow do they meet all the environmental requirements? Lots of questions about the water itself and how they may redevelop it, clean that area.鈥
Launching even small watercraft from the current Sutherland Park boat launch is already problematic since it was built in the 1940s and 1950s with a dirt road into the lake and asphalt added later. More recently, concrete blocks were added along the side so trailers didn鈥檛 get stuck in the mud, he said.
鈥淚tsa国际传媒 incredibly shallow. In the 1950s and 1960s, a 16-foot runabout was your typical family speedboat, four people and maybe tow a skier with your 50-horse outboard Evinrude,鈥 he said. 鈥淣ow, you see these monster boats that people try to put in the lake there; they can鈥檛 launch it because the hulls are too deep. You鈥檝e got three feet of water in most of the bay mid-summer and less than that, a foot of water, in September. That bench runs out 300 feet.鈥
Lewis said from what he knows, the city is working on a plan for the waterfront walkway from Poplar Point Road to extend through Sutherland Park and possibly along a walkway or public causeway through the Tolko property, then onto Guy Street around Manhattan Point to connect to the existing Brandtsa国际传媒 Creek Linear Park.
鈥淢y guess is that the city wants to connect as much of the waterfront as they can. Tolko will be wheeling and dealing on that. Maybe there will be a push for approval on the marina,鈥 Lewis said.
鈥淢aybe they will push for higher density which means taller buildings than are theoretically allowed under the Official Community Plan,鈥 he added.
鈥淏oth sides trying to get as much as they can out of it based upon access to the water.鈥
The redevelopment website , says the Tolko concept plan was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022. The North End neighbourhood plan was supposed to be completed this month.
However, Lewis said hesa国际传媒 heard the Tolko plan is behind schedule and that completing the North End plan was pushed to the end of this year.
