Community Opinion

Thanks for your question Lori. This funding option was introduced as part of the process to develop the Skaha Lake Park East Plan. Anyone who participated in that two-year process would be aware of it. Additionally, once the plan was approved and the decision was made in a public Council meeting to seek a community mandate through the by-election for the funding option, staff implemented a communication plan that ran for a full month in advance of the by-election. As part of this plan, a two-page summary was produced and made available online and in print. The two page summary was published in the newspapers and distributed through the shapeyourcitypenticton.ca. Staff also hosted in-person pop-ups on each of the lakeshores, multiple online presentations and Q&A sessions. Online sessions were recorded and are available to view. All of the questions generated by the public input sessions were also published and distributed. These activities were heavily promoted on social media and in the newspapers. I appreciate that now that the by-election is upon us, there are some people who may just be learning about this initiative as the majority of the attention in the media has been on the candidates and not the community opinion question. Materials were also made available at the polls in consideration of this situation. 

Hi there, Thank you for your question. The City has a sub-lease with the Penticton Yacht Club (a not-for-profit society) for the Okanagan Lake Marina. The term began in 2019 and runs until 2023 with a two-year renewal option. 

The City entered into an agreement with Trio in a closed meeting without any input from the community. In this situation, the community has been and will be heavily involved throughout the process beginning with the creation of the Skaha Lake Park East Plan. The City is now seeking a community mandate to enter into a long-term agreement before it seeks proposals. The City also plans to conduct a public process involving the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee to gather feedback on the proposed terms and the agreement before it is entered into. One of the advantages of the type of agreement proposed is that the City retains public ownership which reduces the risk of expensive buy-outs if the arrangement is not successful. 

Hi there, Thank you for your question. That is very interesting. I will share that link with staff to consider.

Thank you for this question. Just to clarify, the City is not asking for approval to enter into a 25-year lease with the marina operator. The City is asking if there is support to identify an operator and enter into a Management Operating Agreement of up to 25 years. If successful, the City will then go through a competitive public process to identify an interested and qualified party and begin negotiations. 

The City first learned of this type of agreement through the recent Skaha Lake Park East Plan process. Before this process, the City was only aware of two agreement options for businesses seeking to operate in City parks - short-term license and long-term lease. Given the community's concern about the loss of public ownership of park land associated with leases, they are discouraged and the City has a strict policy for considering requests. 

A Management Operating Agreement allows the City to retain ownership over the land but gives businesses the long-term certainty they require to make an investment. Through the Community Opinion question on the by-election ballot, the City will learn if there is support for this type of long-term arrangement for the marina. 

The City will confirm the process to receive proposals once it is determined there is support from the community to take the next step. Some of the steps that are being considered are provided below:

- The City may consider seeking an Expression of Interest to shortlist qualified candidates before going through the RFP process. 

- A team of senior City employees and members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and other appropriate committees would likely be assembled to review submissions. 

- The RFP and the draft agreement will also both be reviewed publicly as part of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee process before Council considers entering into the agreement.  

Sorry that I did not see your question sooner. A few comments. Through the process to develop the Skaha Lake Park East Plan, many citizens expressed their support for a licensed restaurant as well as the other recommendations in the plan. We understand that this may not be the preference of everyone. For your convenience, the charts summarizing the feedback received are provided below. 

In terms of the agreement, the City will fully develop the terms of the agreement as well as the process for reviewing proposals if there is support from the community to take the next step. Preliminary terms have been provided for the information of the community. The RFP and the draft agreement will also both be reviewed publicly as part of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee process before Council considers entering into the agreement. The responses to the EOI/RFP are public information but typically must be formally requested as they contain proprietary information that would need to be reviewed and redacted before the documents could be released. 

The Skaha Lake Park East Plan includes recommendations to replace the splash pad and the boathouse.

The park is almost 40 acres. We are not anticipating the added population will strain the park. Parks staff will monitor the condition of the park as they do today.

The City has estimated that the marina needs $1.5 million in investment to continue operations as they are today. An operator would be welcome to propose a greater investment as long as it is within the set terms such as the desired services, the footprint of the current license, and the maximum length of the agreement.