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Letter: We are the park safeguards

There is nothing stopping the City of Penticton from enacting zones within the parks
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Penticton Western News letters to the editor.

We are the park safeguards

Interesting meeting at the Lakeside Resort with Save Skaha Park Society and the guest speaker Peter Weeber.

Often these meetings leave you with more questions than answers and this one was no different.

The statement was made that parks in general are not protected from commercialization or sale, and it is a long road with much more work to make that happen. So, no, the parks are not saved but they’re working on it. There are lots of loopholes to be plugged.

There is nothing stopping the City of Penticton from enacting zones within the parks. That has been put forward in Parks and Rec planning, is it still in there? They can then change the zoning bylaws to allow development/commercialization. It will be up to the citizens to know about zoning changes and complain. Right!

There is nothing stopping the City of Penticton from changing a bylaw into a zoning change. There is nothing stopping the City of Penticton from changing bylaws in general. Proof: height restrictions in Skaha Park changed to accommodate waterslide height. Proof: Density bylaw next to schools changed to accommodate housing development on Kinney Avenue.

The City of Penticton will be able to use the Alternate Approval Process when going for support of park commercialization. So again the citizens must organize groups and marshal forces to oppose the plan. Right!

Where are the safeguards? We are the safeguards. Are we up to the task?

Lynn Crassweller

Penticton