Parking options (Submitted photo/Friends of Kalamalka Lake Park)

By Kevin Rothwell

Agriculture Land Commission targeted

Petition launched over Cosens Bay parking

Mar 15, 2021 | 12:45 PM

Friends of Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park have launched a petition to the Agriculture Land Commission (ALC) over a proposed overflow parking lot to serve Cosens Bay Beach.

“The Cosens Bay Valley is a place where you can stand and imagine the Okanagan before contact. The grassland sweeps down to the turquoise bay between rugged cliffs and forested mountains,” petitioner Katie Benz said.

BC Parks tried to purchase a piece of the adjacent hayfield to expand the popular Cosens Bay parking lot, but the Agricultural Land Commission turned that down as a non-agricultural use.

Plan B calls for a large parking lot in the middle of the grassland on the top bench of the Cosens Bay Valley.

“This will destroy the integrity of the only preserved grassland valley of its kind. No longer will you be able to imagine a time before contact. And as you enter Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park, cars and trucks in a dusty parking lot will loom above you on the skyline curve of the glacier-carved valley,” Benz stated.

Possible firearm involved

One person apprehended in connection with suspicious activity in Coldstream

Dec 13, 2025

Fatal Collision, Highway Closed

One person dead in crash near Revelstoke

Dec 13, 2025

Salaries

Vernon Council to discuss lesser pay increases

Dec 12, 2025

The petition is calling on the ALC to reverse the decision and allow for a part of the hayfield to be used as an unpaved parking lot.

As of midday Monday (March 15) over 1,100 people had signed the petition, which is asking for 15,000 names.