Revelstoke Times Review, July 25, 2012

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FREERIDE WORLD TOUR: Newly merged event to make first tracks in Revelstoke - 12

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Weds., July 25, 2012

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TIMESReview

City of Revelstoke proposes ‘softer’ smoking restrictions Despite more support than opposition, the city is retreating on increased smoking restrictions in parks, walkways, patios and public spaces AARON ORLANDO editor@revelstoketimesreview.com

Bathers enjoy a dip at the St. Leon’s hot springs last winter. A Vancouver group is looking to acquire the alex Cooper photography popular hot springs with the goal of protecting them.

Vancouver couple’s plans to ‘protect’ St. Leon Hot Springs includes healing retreat Newly-formed society hopes donations and user-fees will raise $2.9 million to purchase St. Leon Hot Springs property to create their vision for healing retreat AARON ORLANDO editor@revelstoketimesreview.com

A Vancouver couple wants to protect the St. Leon Hot Springs from future development by creating a healing retreat on the location – saying if they don’t, it’s just a matter of time before the popular natural hot springs is developed into a commercial resort. However, the couple’s vision for the property includes significant development plans, including a campsite, parking lots, renovating the existing natural pools, potentially piping water to new pools and introducing fees for some of these services. The couple would also like to live on the property themselves for part of the year. The hot spring’s pools are located off of Highway 23 about 25 kilometres south of the Galena Bay ferry terminal. It was commercially-operated as a spa until the 1950s when steamer service

ceased, ending its viability. Flooding of the Arrow Lakes Reservoir in the late 1960s covered much existing infrastructure, including the remains of the St. Leon Hotel which burned in November, 1968. Since then, it has existed as a natural hot springs accessed via a drive, hike or ski up a logging road. Currently, users can access the pools for free, but they are technically trespassing to get there. Vancouverite Heather Bryant and her common-law husband Bill Small have recently set up a booth at the Nakusp Farmers’ Market, where they’re providing information on their vision and taking donations from residents on behalf of the St. Leon Hot Springs Society. Bryant explains it is a subsidiary of The BC Hot Springs Preservation Society, a brand new umbrella organization interested in preserving hot springs in B.C. by developing them into healing centres. Bryant explained their lawyer was setting the societies up in

a way to ensure a hostile takeover wasn’t possible. They’re looking for Nakusp and Revelstoke residents hoping to get involved. Their vision for the 390-acre property includes the campsite and temporary structures including yurts, tipis, tents and geodesic domes. “Low key, off the grid,” Bryant said. They hope to install composting toilets and solar showers on the site. The healing hot springs would be complimented by healing stations equipped with massage tables. “The biggest part of our vision is to maintain the natural environment around the hot springs,” Bryant said. “We don’t want to create a resort, we don’t want a condominium structure, we don’t want a golf course. We want it to stay natural so people can come there as mother nature offers it to us.”

St. Leon, page 5

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Revelstoke City Hall is backing away from smoking restrictions proposed a year ago, removing many proposed restrictions and making others optional at the discretion of businesses. In August of 2011, city council gave first readings to a bylaw that would introduce significant new smoking restrictions in public spaces in Revelstoke. The move came after a request by the city’s health advisory committee to do so. After almost a year with no public action on the bylaw, the city has retreated from their position despite little formal input opposing it. In fact, the city received only nine official submissions. Four supported the ban or asked for further restrictions; three opposed the ban; one focused on litter and another lobbied for a specific concession. The proposed revisions to the bylaw came at the direction of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee. The Revelstoke Times Review contacted Gary Starling, the standing committee’s chairperson, but he said he wouldn’t be available for an interview until after our press time. Revelstoke mayor David Raven said the changes are designed to soften a “heavyhanded” bylaw that was “too intrusive into our rights and freedoms.” “According to the cards and letters, it’s about fifty-fifty,” Raven said of the feedback. “There were some flaws in the original draft. It became a bit more obtrusive than necessary and a bit more heavy handed. The amendments soften it in some respects, but it still achieves the final results.” Why has the bylaw taken a year to move from second to third reading? “I think there’s been other priorities,” Raven said, adding the planning department has been busy focusing on economic issues. The restrictions proposed in 2011 would have banned smoking on city property, including in parks. The city has

dialled back that proposal to allow smoking in parks, with some restrictions. Smoking will be banned on playgrounds and an eight-meter buffer zone around them. You won’t be allowed to light up on playing fields, but spectators can – if they take a few steps back behind the four-metre buffer zone. Smoking won’t be allowed on public beaches and an eight-metre buffer zone around them. The city has also backed away from a ban on smoking on public pathways and walkways and are now proposing installing ashtrays at the entrances of the city’s Greenbelt walkway. Neither ban prohibited smoking on sidewalks, unless the area overlapped with other restrictions. Other new smoking restrictions are proposed, but many of them are already included in provincial legislation. For example, the city proposes banning smoking in city vehicles, although that’s already banned under provincial rules. The city wants to ban smoking in transit shelters and public buildings – both already covered by a provincial ban. The province bans smoking within three metres of an entrance to a public building. The revised city plan calls for an extension to eight metres. In a letter to council, the Revelstoke Golf Club requested an exemption from the ban on city-owned property. Wording changes in the bylaw now mean smoking will be allowed on the Revelstoke Golf Club course. The city also proposes allowing designated smoking areas during outdoor special events in places like Grizzly Plaza if the organizers designate smoking areas on their application – in the 2011 draft it would have been banned. These new exemptions also apply to parades and street closures. Smoking on public patios leased by the

Smoking restrictions, page 3

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