City Acquires RC Cotton Waterfront Lands from BC Rails

There will be additional recreation trail and lakefront access in Williams Lake as the City has acquired RC Cotton Waterfront lands from BC Rails.

Mayor Walt Cobb says the City has been working to acquire the four-hectare parcel since 2011.

“To me in my mind when that subdivision was put in on the RC Cotton Site somebody missed the boat and it should have been dedicated as parkland to start with and it wasn’t,” he said.

“So consequently we’ve had to go through a negotiation process because they wanted to sell it of course and generate some revenue.”

Cobb adds it started out at way more than what the City was willing to pay and that finally after all these years it’s come to fruition.

Considered a vital link in the River Valley Recreation trail system, the waterfront lands form a 1.3-kilometer-long route between the lake and Stampede Grounds according to a news release.

“We’ve got the title in our name now and we can start continuing the trail from the River Valley out to Scout Island,” Cobb said.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions with the Field Naturalists on what the pedestrian bridge should look like going across to Scout Island. I think they’re already working on getting on some of the trail work done this year, but the bridge probably won’t be finalized until next spring.”

The long-range plan according to Cobb is to include a new boat launch and further trail continuation along South Lakeside Drive.

He says the City is continuing negotiations with BC Rail to acquire further lands including areas by the Station House Gallery and the City’s snow dump.

“There are some others that we are still dealing with but they weren’t as crucial as the Scout Island area.”

MyCaribooNow is awaiting confirmation from the City’s Director of Development Services on the costs associated with acquiring RC Cotton Waterfront Land. Cobb said he believed it was $60,000 noting that the City had some grant funds available.