The Regional District Okanagan Similkameen has agreed to a deal between a private landowner and the crown that should end a long standing dispute in Kaleden.

Here is an analysis of the issue by RDOS staff:

In considering this proposal, Administration notes that the Electoral Area ‘D-1’ OCP contains a number of policies supportive of retaining the former KVR/CPR right-of-way for the purposes of a trail network.

Specifically: Establish a trail network utilizing the CPR right-of-way  and work with the Provincial government to establish appropriate uses including a trail linkage along the abandoned CPR trail corridor. While the current proposal is seen to involve the transfer of parts of the end of Alder Street and part of the ‘marsh road” to private ownership, it is Administration’s understanding that the area to be transferred to the Crown is for the purpose of redirecting the trail corridor and is also facilitating the access to the “Sickle Point” property as a single parcel (i.e. it is understood that no additional rights of access to Sickle Point are being created as part of this process). The land exchange is also allowing for the possibility that the remainder of “marsh road” (i.e. that part not included in the transfer to private ownership) may be rehabilitated and should no longer be used as an access to Sickle Point.

Landowner Debi McGinn (seen above): “We have a signed agreement in principle with the province, that reflects the land exchange that is proposed in the referral document … The province has a number of agencies it has referrals out to for comment, of which the RDOS is one. Glad to see the RDOS’s decision to support this exchange, which is the first step towards the resolution of these long outstanding public access and environmental issues.”

A check of internet news items shows this land near Sickle Point as a contentious issue since 1976. He came back to the news in 2011 with a new owner of the land blocking off their land to public use. Here is a excerpt of a letter to the media by:

In 2010, my husband and I, 15-year residents of Kaleden, bought the former CPR property adjacent to Alder Avenue and part way along the Sickle Point marsh. Our two main objectives with purchasing this property, along with building our new home, was to negotiate a KVR trail connection with the province and to help effect the rehabilitation of Sickle Point marsh. We realized that through our negotiations with the province we could also provide a wide enough corridor that would also enable Sickle Point to have access further away from Skaha Lake, so that the marsh could be restored and protected as wildlife habitat.

Debi McGinn