After another lively debate, CRD directors have voted to send the controversial Island View Beach Regional Park management plan back to a committee for further discussion.
First discussed in 2011, the regional parks committee approved a revised draft of the plan last month. It calls for a number of changes, to access points and ecological restoration, but the most contentious issue has been a recommendation that dogs be permitted off-leash throughout most of the park.
"While I fully understand that we need to have balance with recreational needs and environmental needs, I don't think the plan that's proposed here today shows that balance," says View Royal mayor David Screech. "I think it really does make Island View Beach a dog park, and I think that that is wrong, not only for the creatures and the birds that live there but also for the people who just quite simply don't like dogs."
Regional parks chair Mike Hicks says his committee has been working on the plan for five years and they need to get the ball rolling.
"We have a blueprint. It's not perfect, but it's a plan. I think we should go with it, and commit to being flexible in the future. If it doesn't work, we'll change it. We'll change it. But we've got to start somewhere, and I don't think going back to parks committee is going to do anything."
In a weighted vote, CRD directors have voted 42-to-32 in favour of referring the plan back to the parks committee.