Locals and visitors will be able to enjoy alcoholic beverages on certain Kelowna beaches following a council decision made on Monday.
During the afternoon meeting, Kelowna City Council gave all three readings to a bylaw that would allow alcohol consumption on designated spots in Waterfront Park, Kinsmen Park and Boyce-Gyro Park from July 4 to Oct. 6.
People can drink alcohol at these beaches from noon to 9 pm.
However, people will have to avoid the following areas:
Waterfront Park: Paths, parking lots and areas of “low natural surveillance”
Kinsmen park: Playground and sport courts
Boyce-Gyro Park: Paths, the zipline, playground and parking lot
Areas within 15 metres of any houses are also off limits.
The city’s park planner, Melanie Steppuhn, said signs will be posted in these parks to remind people of the rules and to provide contact information for bylaw officers.
The decision to allow alcohol consumption on those three beaches was not an easy one for council to make.
The mayor and council members also had a lengthy debate about allowing the pilot program to run on long weekends, whether or not to allow glass containers on the beaches and why alcohol was being allowed but not other legal substances like cannabis.
“Why are certain legalized substances allowed and not others, for example, cannabis is legal but we’re allowing alcohol,” said coun. Wooldridge.
Mayor Tom Dyas said “there were key differences” between drugs and alcohol. He said by allowing people to responsibly drink alcohol was much different than allowing people to consume cannabis.
“This is more so for the responsible individuals and I think as we’ve seen communities across the province doing this and not having a lot of difficulty, especially in the region that we’re in,” added Dyas, pointing to the Okanagan’s “booming” alcohol industry.
City staff also said that cannabis was banned from city parks shortly after legalization and other things like cigarettes and vaping had also been banned from city parks.
Several councillors also wondered what the impact would be on RCMP and bylaw officers if the program was allowed on long weekends.
Staff said that RCMP and bylaw officers were normally very busy and resources were “stretched thin” over any given long weekend in Kelowna.
In the staff report, City Park, Kerry Park and Stuart Park have been identified as places to avoid for the pilot due to their history of police-related calls.
Coun. Maxine DeHart suggested that not allowing the program to run on long weekends would confuse people while coun. Rick Webber suggested that not allowing it to run on long weekends may actually cause more calls for service to the police and bylaw officers.
Ultimately, council voted to allow the program to run every day until the program ends in October.
As for glass, council agreed not to allow things like wine or beer bottles in Waterfront Park, Kinsmen Park and Boyce-Gyro Park.
Next week, council is expected to debate issues around the increase in recycling and garbage and how to address them. Coun. Wooldridge suggested the motion, however, Mayor Dyas said he would rather wait and give city staff a few days to prepare some options instead of rushing the decision.
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