Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer Dogs on short leashes will be allowed on walkway

Allowing dogs on short leashes on the walkway year round and removing a boat access area are part of the waterfront enhancement approved by Penticton council this week.

Also under review by staff -- in keeping with planned improvements to the west Okanagan Lake waterfront -- are reducing the number of signs.

“Between the Peach and the S.S. Sicamous, we have several hundred signs from no smoking, to no dogs, to no parking, a whole lot of things, so we looked at all of them and said do we really need certain ones,” said Mitch Moroziuk, director of operations.

The goal instead is to have three large information signs and keep smaller important signs, related to parking and safety issues.

Dogs on short leashes will now be allowed on the walkway only. Peviously, the animals were banned from May to September.

In addition, the area where people could previously pull boats up on to the beach in the summer, on the east side of the S.S. Sicamous, will be removed. Boats can still be pulled up on the west side.

“During public consultation, we found that people didn’t like that boat area, because swimmers were close to boats," said Moroziuk. "This is all tied to enhancing this area of the waterfront."

City staff also recommended this week that council amend the smoking bylaw to ban smoking on municipal beaches.

The first reading was passed.

Work on the enhancement project is expected to commence in the spring.