The Foothills Community Association endorses the view supporting parks in natural areas in the context of the updating of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee priority list.
The FCA has lobbied elected officials in both Vernon and at GVAC for a natural park in the treed area at the top of the Foothills bluff, which provides a magnificent view of the North Okanagan.
We believe this park would serve all of Greater Vernon, including in particular the nearby BX-Swan Lake, BX-Silver Star and Foothills. Connecting trails from it to the Grey Canal and Cools Pond, as well as in other directions, could serve as an alternate route to Silver Star Road for access to the Anderson Way shopping area.
Our initiative has been endorsed by a number of organizations in Greater Vernon, including the Vernon Outdoors Club, the North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club, the Allan Brooks Nature Centre, the Keddleston Community Association and the Ribbons of Green Trails Society.
We appreciate that creation of such a park is something of a long-term objective, since the land in question, is at present, in private hands. But we would hope that near-term designation of that land as a notional park would serve to start the process needed to make it happen in the future.
We look forward to the results of the GVAC parks prioritization and trust that our initiative will have support.
Wynn Polnicky, Kees Versfeld,
Foothills Community Association Co-Founders
Vernon
