Mara Lake development moratorium sought

A Shuswap community is looking to curtail development on their local lake over fears the waterway won’t sustain current development.

Mara Lake, at 20 kilometres square just south of Sicamous, is home to several new waterfront developments, and two more that are proposed: Wiseman Creek and Waterway’s Beach Bay Village.

The beachfront vacation homes will include 585 boat slips which locals say is unsustainable for the small lake.

“It’s going to add to pollution, it’s going to add to the noise, it’s going to make it almost impossible for locals to get out on lake,” says Jack Andrews, one of several residents who are calling for a moratorium on development.

Joyce Ballestra, a Mara Lake resident for nearly 50 years, says the increased activity in just recent years is alarming.

“There was an ultra-lite landing here, there was someone parachuting, or parasailing down there, there were a couple of houseboats, there was a fisherman, and two people trying to swim across the lake,” she says Ballestra.

The two new developments are over and above the Legacy condos and Hummingbird Resort nearby, which are nearing completion.

“You’ve already got four or five developments that will be putting boat slips in, so the new ones that we’re talking about, the additional 600 is over and above those,” says Rick Clegg, part of the concerned residents group.

The group emphasizes they’re not looking for a complete end to development on Mara Lake, but don’t want new projects to go ahead until the provincial government has completed its Shuswap Lake integrated planning process.

“It would be unrealistic to be opposed to development outright,” says Ballestra, who says they would like to see development within reason instead.

In 2007, the BC Government issued a moratorium on new commercial docks, marinas and strata moorage on both Shuswap and Mara Lakes, but that was repealed after a few months following pressure from developers and local government.