Along with installing a toll booth on the Duncan Bay Main logging road, 3L Developments will be charging those who use Stotan Falls, a popular swimming hole in Area C of the Comox Valley Regional District, between Courtenay and Nymph Falls Park. The cost is $5 per person and $10 for families.
For the past few months, motorists have been charged $2 for cars and $5 for trucks to pass through the toll booth, situated between the Puntledge River and Forbidden Plateau Road. There’s even a dollar charge for cyclists.
Related: People choosing Nymph Falls instead
But on Sunday, June 11, the company is hosting a free park day from noon to 2 p.m. when hot dogs and pop will be served at Stotan Falls.
“I like to see them have a good time,” 3L president Dave Dutcyvich said. “That’s why I let them use everything for the last 10 years for free.”
Does he foresee any problems with enforcing a recreational user fee?
“When you go to the Calgary Zoo, do they have a problem?” he said.
Dutcyvich owns all the land around Stotan and Bull Island, including the river beds.
He has a vision to create an affordable, residential community along Duncan Bay Main, and to donate 240 acres of riverfront for a public park. In 2013, his company applied to amend the Regional Growth Strategy to develop its Riverwood project, but the CVRD board voted against the amendment. In response, 3L filed a legal challenge. The court found the CVRD was “not reasonable in its decision to not initiate the amendment.” The district was ordered to consider the application in a “manner consistent with the mandatory process” set out in the RGS. The CVRD then filed with the BC Court of Appeal, but lost.
“I never went to the regional district to change my zoning,” Dutcyvich said. “The regional district came to me. They asked if I’d make a park and I agreed to it. I was zoned for five acres. I could have sold them in 2008, and been long gone. They asked me if I’d give them a 185-acre park, and they’d give me density zoning. As soon as I was doing my application, they changed the zoning to 50 acres. They never had a public meeting about it.”
The CVRD continues to be in discussion with 3L about the application. In a statement, the district says 3L has advised that it plans to forward additional materials for the board to consider when it reviews the application, as directed by the Court of Appeal.
“We are advised that the company is currently reviewing what needs to be updated and where new information needs to be provided.”
By summer’s end, CVRD staff plans to forward a report to the board to help directors decide whether they wish to proceed with the application as a minor amendment to the RGS, as per the 2013 application.
“We’ll see what happens there,” Dutcyvich said. “For 10 years I’ve been letting everybody use the property for free. I’ve been paying for a caretaker, a guy who goes around picking up garbage, paying for huge insurance policies because of the liability of it all. Now I need to get some money off of it to pay its own way. It’s too bad. It’s beautiful. I would love to see it become a park. It’s a jewel of the Valley.”
He said 99-plus per cent of respondents in a 3L survey want the park.
“We’ve only met three people that are negative against the park,” Dutcyvich said. “The regional district should listen to what it’s being told. I want them to have the park. I think it would be a shame to cut it up…Most people agree with me. On the whole, the people of the Valley have been very good about it.”
In 2013, after the CVRD board rejected 3L’s offer to purchase the property, the company enforced No Trespassing signs and temporarily blocked traffic flow by closing two sets of gates on Duncan Bay Main. A Save Stotan Falls Facebook page appeared shortly thereafter, as did a protest at the falls.