Electoral Area H Water Accesses

Community Consultation Process

Access to the waterfront is important to Electoral Area 'H' residents. The foreshore is used for walking, beachcombing, swimming, bird and wildlife viewing, fishing and boating among other activities.

There are 49 public water accesses in Electoral Area 'H'. Over the past few years, residents have become increasingly concerned about encroachment of water access rights-of-way by neighboring properties; another corner is the lack of signage to identify the location of these foreshore accesses.

Public access to the waterfront is provided along road rights-of-way that end at the foreshore. In regional districts the rights-of-ways are owned by the Province and are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI). MOTI does not take an active management role over undeveloped water accesses. Some residents have asked that the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) get involved in signing, developing and managing water accesses in key locations.

Each Electoral Area within the RDN pays for its own water access development through its community parks budget. Some examples of improvements the RDN has undertaken on water accesses under permit from MOTI include trail development, the installation of stairs, signage, benches and picnic tables, toilets as well as boat launches and associated parking areas.

Members of the Electoral Area 'H' Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee and RDN Staff completed an inventory of public water accesses in 2000 which describes all the water accesses and makes suggestions with respect to possible improvements.

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• Please click here to review the Electoral Area H Water Access Inventory