SENIORS
THE OKANAGAN SUN will be sporting a new alternate logo when the B.C. Football Conference squad starts the 2014 season.
EXPECTATIONS from Tourism Kelowna are for a strong year in the tourism industry this year
LOCAL MP Ron Cannan encourages residents to participate in a National Day of Honour ceremony on Friday at the airport in recognition of Canadian military personnel who served in Afghanistan.
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TUESDAY May 6, 2014 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ SOUTH PANDOSY LAKEFRONT
▼ COURT
Foerster’s father Council opts for expanded park size expected to plead guilty Alistair Waters
SOUTH PANDOSY
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Kathy Michaels STAFF REPORTER
The Cherryville man who allegedly hid his son from police scrutiny after he became the lead suspect in a high-profile murder investigation, is expected to plead guilty to related charges Wednesday morning. Stephen Roy Foerster, 60, is scheduled to enter the guilty plea to charges of obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact, relating to the 2011 murder of Armstrong teen Taylor Van Diest, said Crown counsel David Grabavac. Sentencing recommendations for those charges will be heard in the Kelowna courtroom at that point as well. It’s the final legal hurdle for the Van Diest family, who spent years awaiting the courts to address the 2011 murder of the teen. “I’ll be there,” said Taylor’s mother Marie Van Diest, Monday morning. “Wednesday will be a telling day. I probably won’t be somewhat satisfied until I find out what kind of sentence (he gets.)” Matthew Foerster was convicted of first-degree murder in April and will be in prison for a minimum of 25 years. A jury found he fatally beat Taylor Van Diest and left her to die on a stretch of Armstrong train tracks Halloween night 2011. He may have escaped unidentified, but the teen had scratched her assailant and his DNA was found under her fingernails. It was matched to the DNA in a pre-existing assault complaint, from a Kelowna escort agency, and the victim of that alleged crime helped police with a composite sketch. Some 1,250 tips from the public were gathered after the sketch was released, and numerous people pointed to the junior Foerster as a potential suspect. B.C. Mounties, assisted by their colleagues in Ontario along with members of the Ontario Provincial Police, arrested Matthew Foerster five months later at a motel in Collingwood, Ont. His father was arrested the same day at his Cherryville home. Over the course of Matthew Foerster’s two-week See Guilty A10
Kelowna city council has finally found a compromise for development of a waterfront park in South Pandosy that most, if not all, can live with. On Monday, council received a round of applause from a packed gallery as it rejected a staff recommendation to approve a development plan for 11 city-owned waterfront lots near the foot of Cedar Avenue that would have included creation of a 5,740 square-metre park. Instead, council opted for an alternate plan that calls for a park nearly twice that size. And in doing so, council also dropped an associated proposal to sell two of the lots at the north end of the parcel to help pay for development of the park. The key difference between the two plans is Abbott Street will not be realigned under the adopted proposal and as a result, will not cut the city owned properties in half. That move would have allowed land on the east side of what was being called the new Abbott Parkway to be sold off for development. “I’m super excited,” said Michael Neil, an area resident and Kelowna businessman who led the three-year effort to press the city to keep as much land as possible for the proposed waterfront park
park proponent Joy Lambrick (right) hands Cynthia Hunter a sign reading I Want More Park before Kelowna city council’s debate on the future of a proposed waterfront park and associated development in the South Pandosy area of the city. ALISTAIR WATERS/CAPITAL NEWS
in South Pandosy. “I’m just so glad they (council) took the time to look at this,” he said. With every councillor and the mayor speaking to the issue following a presentation from city staff— some twice—it was clear council was divided on the two options before them. Known as “refined option one” and “refined option four,” the former originally included selling the two lots at the north end of the property to
raise money to pay for the $4.9-million park. The sale of the properties would have returned the city about $1.7 million, said a report to council. The other option did not include selling any potential park land, instead carving off property the city already owns by realigning Abbott Street and allowing development on the east side of the new road while using the property on the west side, between the road and the
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lakeshore, as park. The latter plan would have cost $4 million but according to city staff would have been more than offset by a return of about $4.4 million from the sale of land east of the new Abbott Parkway for development. A three-day design workshop, known as a charrette, took place earlier this year and featured representatives of the public and several associated groups. Three of the four tables at the charrette fa-
voured the realigned Abbott Street model. But many members of the public who showed up to view the work of the charrette opposed realigning the road because they felt it would carve off land they felt should be used for park. In debating the issue, city councillors stated their preferences for the two recommended options with the final vote on the smaller park option
See Council A10
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