Concept Plan: Waterfront Parks Overall
The town of Okanagan Falls has a roughly 650m wide frontage along Skaha Lake. This frontage is currently made up of three individual public parks, a public boat launch and a current residential property owned by the RDOS. The parks are not contiguous and are intersected by three private developments fronting the lake. The overall waterfront concept plan seeks to better stitch together the individual parks and create a more cohesive and seamless waterfront park realm and experience for its users. This is achieved through a series of moves outlined below.
Through the introduction of a continuous, clearly legible, wider, smoothly transitioning, and consistent material pathway along and connecting the three major parks (Lions, Kenyon and Christie), the park spaces will flow unincumbered from one park to the next. The pathway will have a feature surfacing repeated along the entire waterfront and through the individual parks.
Feature light fixtures in proportion with the scale of the waterfront parks stretched as pearls along the main pathway, will further strengthen the connective feeling along the pathway and the parks.
Additional proposed shade trees will as well bridge and connect the parks spaces.
A proposed central drop off area at the elbow intersection of 7 Avenue and Cedar Street will act as a connecting pivot point between Kenyon and Christie Parks. This pivot point provides a functional drop off as well as a focal point arrival plaza for the waterfront parks and beach area. This focal area for the parks will host a new common pavilion with change rooms, bathrooms, potential concession space and other beach facilities such as foot showers.
Additionally, this location will house culturally relevant elements such as the Salmon Chief sculpture in a more prominent and visible location. Angled parking along the street frontage of the parks provides more efficient and clear parking opportunities for the public visiting the parks and the waterfront.
Feel free to go to https://ecora-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/po_ho_ecora_ca/Ee4uSVXYOF5HtOGzfQpFyHYBR5ReVlfsdMlhxwjSxEhM_A?e=lnkJpR for downloading or a closer look to the concept plan.