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The future of public use of Lillooet River Park on the north side of the Lillooet River Bridge is up in the air.
The land is technically within the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District’s (SLRD) jurisdiction, but the Village of Pemberton had a 30-year lease agreement over the lands, set to expire in March 2027, in order to access a sewage treatment plant in the area. (A 20-year statutory right of way agreement expired in April 2019 and was not renewed.)
However, back in 2010, the wastewater treatment plant in the area was decommissioned and relocated to Airport Road.
Because the Village still has tenure of the land, officials considered expanding, establishing a park and adding a boat launch. To that end, in July 2020, council voted to move the process further along. Since then, however, some concerns have come up, said CAO Sheena Fraser.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure … identified, ‘This is a great idea, but there is a right-of-way off the road at the edge of the bridge.’ They would need to look at what we were planning to do and we would need to put in significant upgrades to the access area and these would be at our cost,” she said.
Other issues, including human waste and garbage in the area due to overnight camping—although it is prohibited—have also drawn complaints. The Village doesn’t have enforcement jurisdiction over the area and its public works department cannot accommodate the extra clean-up, Fraser said.
For those reasons, staff recommended council withdraw its application for Crown land tenure of the area.
Council wasn’t quite convinced.
Councillor Leah Noble raised the idea of gating the area off to traffic, allowing access only for people via the Friendship Trail, as well as adding an outhouse and garbage bin.
“I think closing off highway access is a great idea, except I know it’s used by a lot of people to launch their [water] craft,” added Coun. Amica Antonelli. “What I want to see is have this referred back to staff to look at all our options.”
Ultimately, council decided to direct staff to have a conversation with the SLRD about use of the area and explore options for future use.
