Though primarily focused on the lake life, Sicamous Houseboats is looking to make some land-based improvements that could eventually include camping options.
At its Oct. 9 meeting, Sicamous council received a Watercourse Development Permit application for a phased project at the 1 Mervyn Road property. Development services manager Nicole Hansen explained the full development is proposed to be done in two stages, with Phase 1 the relocation of the operations buildings and Phase 2 is the construction of 11 campsites. The current application, however, is only for Phase 1, the redesign of the marina land where Sicamous Houseboats currently operates.
That includes converting an existing building to a "beach amenity" on the part of the property closest to the waterfront, removal of the internal traffic island, a new 60-by-24 foot operations building, a new maintenance building and a couple of other structures taken out.
Looking at the bigger picture of what is proposed, council was supportive and reflected on Sicamous' past heyday.
"I support this proposal; it's good to see them working back into the RV industry and campsites. Before it was called Beachcomber Campground and it's coming back around again," Coun. Gord Bushell said. "Camp spots in the community were very plentiful back in the day, back in the early '80s... and it brings a lot of economy to the community."
Fellow longtime Sicamous resident Pam Beech agreed.
"I think Gord's point is really good. We miss the sort of more affordable camping situations, so this is a good move in the right direction I think, to make travelling and holidaying accessible to more people."
The recommendation to issue the development permit was carried unanimously. Though the 11 proposed RV spaces weren't included at this time, Hansen provided a brief overview of the planned sites which are primarily located on Crown land Sicamous Houseboats is currently negotiating to buy from the province.