The Regional District of Central Kootenay is just about finished with a new Land Use Bylaw for Area G as the current one is over 10 years old. It brings in a larger area to the south that wasn’t originally included and covers the whole of Area G in regards to community expectations for items like water resource protection and fire protection. Area G Director, Hans Cunningam, says it’s been years in the making. “It’s been going on for four years now. We had a [public] hearing previously and decided that not everything was in shape and so this was the second hearing. And it appears that finally, yes, it meets general community consensus and it’s a good thing to go ahead with.”
Cunningham says some ideas were also included last minute to try and address private logging. He says after seeing the destruction around Cottonwood Lake Park near Nelson some concerns were brought forward and incorporated into the document.
“Cottonwood Lake is something else on it’s own and of course that’s not even in Area G, but the Area G residents saw it and they presented it to us and said can’t you do something to make sure that when we private land log that we also take care of those other considerations that are made when you log government land.”
He says they’re still ironing out the details for that section which will be added to the document as an amendment. “Staff has already met with ILMA and will continue to meet with other people in the timber industry to make sure that we have a bylaw that protects such things as forest resources, talks about steep slopes, you know, for avalanche and erosion protection.”
It would be the first bylaw to address these types of concern in the RDCK. The Board of directors gave the bylaw third reading last week and it will now be sent to the province for approval.