Court sides with CSRD over access

January 25, 2008 Salmon Arm Observer

Lakeshore property around the Shuswap is expensive and one small lot has cost the Columbia Shuswap Regional District an estimated $100,000, but it wasn’t the price of buying it. The CSRD recently won their legal battle with Reinhard Burke and William Hlina over Bowering Road in the North Shuswap.The BC Supreme Court ruled in favour of the CSRD in their dispute with the North Shuswap property owners who were trying to block the district’s plan to make Bowering Road a designated public lake access. The neighbours, who live on either side of the road, applied to the Registrar of Land Titles to cancel the road allowance in order to add it to their properties.Although the road is owned by the Ministry of Highways, the CSRD went through a series of legal challenges to ensure the public’s right to lake access.

Deputy Manager of Development Services Kathy Gilbert told the board the provincial Supreme Court took the literal interpretation of the law and rejected the arguments of Burke and Hlina. Gilbert said the judge also took a broader view that although the regional district didn’t have physical responsibility for roads, it has the right to be able to plan. Gilbert said the judge also added that he thought public access to water is important. Although the victory came at a high price, the CSRD directors are calling the B.C. Supreme Court win a worthwhile expense. Salmon Arm director Kevin Flynn said it was great news because it’s a huge reaffirmation to Shuswap residents of their right to access the lake. Golden/Columbia director Ron Oszust called the price not an expense but an investment. Revelstoke director Mark McKee agreed, saying if they had lost this battle they would see more and more challenges and more people taking away public accesses to the lake.

In light of the legal victory, the CSRD has filed a new certificate of opposition to the Registrar of Land Titles. This time the registrar must deny the application put in by Burke and Hlina. Burke and Hlina will have to pay the CSRD’s court costs but these will be “a drop in the bucket” compared to legal fees which are tens of thousands of dollars. Gilbert told CSRD directors it is possible the legal battle could continue as Burke and Hlina may go to the BC Supreme Court of Appeal. But, for now, it’s a victory.