Rail trail zone in the works

The process to rezone rail trail properties in Sicamous is underway as district staff drafts new P6 transportation corridor zoning specifically for the non-motorized pathway.

The rail trail is a planned 50 kilometre long path expected to reach from Sicamous to Armstrong.

At the Sept. 25 District of Sicamous planning and development committee meeting, Coun. Gord Bushell explained why he thought it was important to rezone the rail trail corridor.

“The reason I brought this back was one of our original city planners… designated that as a transportation corridor years ago and it’s still in our OCP [Official Community Plan] as a transportation corridor,” Bushell said.

The rail trail in the District of Sicamous is situated over three properties adjacent to Mara Lake. The properties were officially rezoned to P3, park general zoning, after a public hearing in April.

Bushell spoke up at the hearing to say he was not sure P3 was the correct zoning for the rail trail, but agreed to vote in favour of the zoning in order to allow construction to move forward on the pathway project.

At the planning and development committee meeting, Bushell explained he wanted a new type of zone to protect the possibility of installing utilities lines under the properties in the future.

“We've zoned it a park but I'm always afraid after 10 years or something, it becomes a park and then you can't touch it,” he said. “Let's say they decided they were going to bring natural gas to Sicamous. It's kind of natural from Grindrod to here, instead of being in the lake it might be on land.”

Nicole Hansen, development services manager, said the next steps would involve discussions with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District and Splatsin about the proposed zoning changes.

After those discussions, a revised draft of the new P6 zone will go to a committee of the whole meeting before it is sent for final approval at a regular council meeting.

Meanwhile, work is set to continue this fall on the Shuswap North Okanagan Rail Trail between Sicamous and Armstrong.

Rail trail partners have been focused on building two sections of trail through the summer between kilometres 0.5 and 4.5 on the northern end coming out of Sicamous, and kilometres 49.15 to 50.4 between Lansdowne Road and the City of Armstrong on the southern end.