The next year might be bringing heftier regulations to Area G and Area B.
Both regional directors have said they’re in talks with the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen planning department to start looking at proper zoning within their areas.
At this point there are minimal zoning or building regulations.
“People are concerned about the the amount of building going on and that people aren’t connecting properly to septics and they’re concerned about the water,” George Bush, director for Area B, said. “We all need to be concerned about the water.
Bush said 90 per cent of his area is currently in the Agriculture Land Reserve.
He said he started exploring options of zoning and increased bylaws after Area G director Elef Christensen started looking at increasing regulations in his area.
“We can’t be the only ones without zoning like this because then people will start moving to the area so they can build things that maybe they shouldn’t be building.”
He noted there are building bylaws through the province through a building code but that there isn’t “anyone to monitor it except the regional district.”
Bush said zoning and increased bylaws would be a longterm project and that he hoped to hold a public meeting sometime in early 2018 to talk about what zoning and bylaw might look like.
Elef Christensen, director for Area G, said he’s working with the planning department at RDOS to come up with increased regulations.
“I’m not quite sure where the planning department is sitting. We are definitely going to look at using ALR land for ALR purpose and a few other things,” he said.