Municipalities around Sylvan Lake have climbed on board an initiative to improve public and boat access to the lake.
Lacombe County Reeve Wigmore has taken the helm of a steering committee to find a good location for a boat launch and enlisting the support of the federal and provincial governments to develop it.
It could take up to 10 years for such a launch to ever materialize.
Lake access has been a growing concern among communities and residents around the lake.
There are only a handful of boat launches and they are swamped on sunny weekend days.
Lacombe County spent $350,000 last fall expanding a boat launch at the Summer Village of Sunbreaker Cove. An existing crumbling ramp was torn out and replaced with a pair of new ramps and floating docks.
Finding another boat launch site to ease overcrowding has long been a county goal and consultants were hired to shortlist sites. A pair of sites were singled out on the southwest side of the lake but no further work has been done.
Wigmore said the county has decided the best way to go is to get all of the communities around the lake involved as well as other levels of government. Any boat launch would also require federal and provincial approvals, as well as funding help.
Red Deer County, the Town of Sylvan Lake and the Summer Villages of Sunbreaker Cove, Birchcliff, Half Moon Bay, Jarvis Bay and Norglenwold have agreed to join the committee and met at the Lacombe County office on Monday.
So far, municipalities have offered support in principle and have not committed any cash to the project.
Wigmore said the county is aware that any potential sites chosen must have the support of other municipalities.
“If you don’t have everybody on side, or the good portion of them, you’re going to be fighting a pretty long battle to get a place in there and we didn’t really want to do that,” he said.
The search for an acceptable location, finding the funding and lining up all of the necessary approvals is expected to take years.
“It is a process, but we figure it will probably take five to 10 years,” Wigmore said.
Since the lake is a provincial asset open to all Albertans the province should be providing financial support for a new boat launch, he said.
Under county rules, developers proposing lakeside developments must provide public access. Qualico Developments, which wants to build 59 lots on the northeast side of the lake, has included a boat launch in its plans. That project has not yet received final approval.
Wigmore said the next step for the committee is to begin looking at potential sites and develop criteria for making a selection.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com