Today city council will once again look at the waterfront plan and 
the possibility of moving the Elks club into the old Lakers Golf Course Clubhouse. The waterfront plan, which has been debated in one form or another for several years, appears to be no closer to resolution. The plan calls for rezoning the Okanagan lake waterfront into tourist/commercial areas and increasing public access to the waterfront area. 
“Vernon has to determine if we want a vibrant waterfront like Penticton and Kelowna have,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell. While some residents are getting impatient with the lengthy proceedings preventing development from getting under way, Beardsell said that rushing through a plan without examining all the ramifications would be folly. “The trouble with planning and rezoning is that people get impatient,” said Beardsell. But Beardsell said that perhaps the city is dealing with too many large projects at once and can‘t give any of them the attention they deserve. “I find that the lack of priorities is disturbing. Council can‘t go running in every direction,” said Beardsell, adding that the Library building project, major road works and other important projects were too much for a small city staff to deal with at once.
the possibility of moving the Elks club into the old Lakers Golf Course Clubhouse. The waterfront plan, which has been debated in one form or another for several years, appears to be no closer to resolution. The plan calls for rezoning the Okanagan lake waterfront into tourist/commercial areas and increasing public access to the waterfront area. 
“Vernon has to determine if we want a vibrant waterfront like Penticton and Kelowna have,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell. While some residents are getting impatient with the lengthy proceedings preventing development from getting under way, Beardsell said that rushing through a plan without examining all the ramifications would be folly. “The trouble with planning and rezoning is that people get impatient,” said Beardsell. But Beardsell said that perhaps the city is dealing with too many large projects at once and can‘t give any of them the attention they deserve. “I find that the lack of priorities is disturbing. Council can‘t go running in every direction,” said Beardsell, adding that the Library building project, major road works and other important projects were too much for a small city staff to deal with at once. However, Beardsell does feel that it is time to move decisively on the issue. “It has been there for so long, it‘s time it was decided once and for all.” Although Beardsell does not advocate rushing the process, he does acknowledge that a red hot real estate market may force council to act sooner rather than later. “What has been happening in Vancouver is that old homes have been bought and then demolished so that these monster houses could be built. I think we‘ll start to see that here,” said Beardsell. Beardsell also said he wonders why, if council was serious about going ahead with the plan, a new residence was approved to be built on Lakeshore Road. If the plan was put into action, Lakeshore Road could be the site of hotels, condominiums or retail shops. “In these economic times what with real estate and all, the pressure on zoning and planning is immense.”
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