The popularity of Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake with boaters is increasing pressure on the available parking near both lakeshores in Oyama.
It is a problem the District of Lake Country has taken steps to mitigate, said Oyama ward councillor Owen Dickie, but choices to deal with the problem are limited by the amount of overall space available for parking.
At the July 3 council meeting, Dickie brought up the problem of parking at Crystal Waters Road which runs parallel to Hwy 97 on the west side of Kalamalka Lake.
In an attempt to control parking of pickup trucks and boat trailers an encroachment permit was issued to Klub Kalamalka, giving permission to use part of the road within certain guidelines.
The guidelines include signage, roping off the area, and that all trailer wheels must be blocked while parked. The permit area is seven meters wide by 85 meters long.
Dickie said district staff regularly patrol the area and find trailers and Klub Kalamalka to be in compliance with the terms and conditions.
Now the problem has shifted, said Dickie, and motorized vehicles are legally parking along both sides of the road creating a very narrow access.
“I suppose we could look at signage for parking on only one side of the road, but parking is a concern everywhere,” he remarked.
The other flash point for parking concerns in Oyama is the larger boat launch on the north east corner of Wood Lake.
There simply isn’t enough space for people to come and go easily when the parking gets crowded.
The district is incredibly limited in what it can do at the launch, said Dickie, as the land is owned by the railway.
“Possibly the district could be doing something there, but no one is certain what that would be,” he said.
Right now the hope is that people will work to be kind and civil to each other, although occasionally in the hot weather Dickie said there have been reports of that not always being the case.
“As more and more people go out on the lakes parking will continue to be an issue.”