More issues with parks plan

Photo: Contributed

With the second draft of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan released, the Save Skaha Park Society is giving the document a failing grade.

In a news release from SSPS, the group took aim at a clause in the master plan's vision statement, which says the city has "trust in the stewardship of our parks and recreation." Leaders of the SSPS call that statement an "astonishing admission of our city's failure to earn that trust to date."

"We think that to say, 'We have trust in the stewardship of our parks and recreation,' in a vision statement is actually an admission that the city does not have that trust now but their aim is to recover it, and that’s why we called it an astonishing admission that requires full explanation in the report," Lisa Martin later clarified.

While the vision statement includes that clause, the SSPS statement says that's not backed up within the remainder of the document.

"Nowhere in the report is this reality described and analyzed in any meaningful way, yet the lack of trust is a fundamental barrier to real progress in maximizing the benefits of our parks to our quality of life and our environment," the SSPS statement says.

The group also set its crosshairs at a statement from a consultant hired by the city to help move the process along. In particular, it scolds the consultant's language on public opinion on taking up parkland for commercial uses and on amusements in public parks.

The consultant says "many" residents oppose commercial uses and that the community is "divided" on amusements.

That, SSPS says, ignores the 85 per cent opposition to commercial uses in parks recorded in a phone survey conducted for the master plan, as well as several rallies and petitions and letters to the editor.

The group's statement takes further issue with the "deliberately ambiguous" language used in the document, including "inappropriate development" rather than "commercial development," and "preferably unencumbered" rather than simply "unencumbered."

The SSPS is calling on the master plan's steering committee to include a recommendation that would, if heeded, amend the Parks Dedication Bylaw to remove a clause that allows council to lease public park land out.

The bylaw was voted on in a 2002 referendum, and SSPS believes those who voted in favour of it "believed they had protected our parks from commercial development."

The city will be holding an open house at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre on May 1, while feedback will also be received online at the city's public engagement website.