Opposition to amphitheatre

Photo: Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd.

The North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club has added its voice to those opposed to an amphitheatre in a ravine near Okanagan College.

The Okanagan Summer Festival Society has proposed the amphitheatre for outdoor concerts and entertainment during the warm weather, but it has been met with vocal opposition.

The naturalists’ club, which has more than 120 members, expressed its opposition in a letter it sent to area officials from the municipal to federal level.

To emphasize their opposition, the group used a quote from the City of Vernon’s Environmental Management Areas (EMA) Strategy: Environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), critical ecosystems and natural features have been identified as those areas which are at greatest risk for significant and difficult to reverse impacts to ecosystem functioning, habitat and ecosystem services, removal or disruption of habitat and corridors, or are at risk of not being adequately compensated or mitigated. These areas include ridgelines, hilltops, ravines, riparian areas and rangelands/grasslands.

“Although the site is not within the City of Vernon, the principles and concerns stated in this strategy still have relevance,” said NONC president Harold Sellers. “The ravine in question is the only remaining one in the area and should be left in its natural state.”

Sellers said other concerns of an environmental nature are noise, run off, insufficient washrooms, windblown trash and insufficient parking resulting in traffic congestion and roadside and street parking.