An online petition has been launched asking the Capital Regional District to leave Island View Beach as is.
The CRD is planning to re-designate the majority of the park an Environmental Protection Zone. The Friends of Island View Beach are opposed to the plan, saying it would restrict public use, and require dogs to be on-leash.
The CRD draft plan states in the interim dogs may be off-leash until an enclosed dog off-leash area is also created, though the location is yet to be determined.
The group is asking those concerned to contact the CRD and to sign the petition.
According to the CRD Island View Beach Regional Park is classified as a Conservation Area. “The primary purpose of a Conservation Area is protection of regionally significant natural environments that contain plant and wildlife species at risk, and sensitive ecosystems.”
The CRD considers the park, part of a regionally significant landscape which protects the coastal environment by absorbing energy from wind, tide and wave action and also supports critical habitat for plants and animals.
The CDR states that outdoor recreation is permitted in a Conservation Area, provided the activities have minimal impact on the natural environment.
Friends of Island View Beach take issue with two features, that they say dominate the plan and had apparently not been disclosed to the public during the consultation process in 2015:
- that two-thirds of the park is so environmentally sensitive that it must be designated an Environmental Protection Zone and the public excluded;
- that an area needs to be restored as a coastal sand dune ecosystem. The group states that “no description is given where this area is; or why it needs to be “restored”; or what that restoration would entail; or what it would cost.”
“No supporting evidence has been provided to the public for either of these two claims. To introduce them at this late stage, makes a mockery of the supposed public consultation that took all of 2015,” according to the Friends of Island View Beach website.
Over 900 people from Canada have so far signed the petition.
