Naturist Kevin Proteau will be addressing Penticton City Council about Three Mile Beach at tonight's council meeting.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - Penticton City Council will be revisiting a contentious issue this evening.

Penticton City council will receive a report from staff suggesting options for resolving the issue of nudity at Three Mile Beach at tonight’s council meeting, March 2.

Staff will be presenting 10 potential avenues for council to pursue, including amendments to the city’s parks bylaw to include provisions to regulate and levy fines for public nudity, investigating ways to control clothing optional uses for all or a portion of Three Mile Beach, encouraging clothing optional behaviour away from the beach, or doing nothing at all.

Council first dealt with the issue at the Feb. 2 meeting of council, when Three Mile Road property owner Cary Pinkowski addressed council, calling for council to get tough on bylaw enforcement regarding public nudity at the beach.

At tonight’s meeting,  Penticton naturist Kevin Proteau will also address council to present his case for allowing nude sunbathing to continue at the beach. Accompanying his request for a delegation, Proteau included as attachments to the meeting’s agenda letters of support from Nicky Hoffman of the The Naturist Society, Shirley Mason and Seth Paronick of Beaches Foundation Institute, and other naturist groups.

Proteau’s message to the board also attempts to solicit support for clothing optional beaches from a tourism perspective, including an outline of economic benefits generated at Haulover Beach Park, a designated clothing optional beach in Florida.

Also contained in tonight’s council meeting package is a letter from a Penticton law firm, written on behalf of property owners in the Three Mile Road area, requesting council impose a bylaw "allowing signed postings on Three Mile Beach to reflect that nudity is prohibited and any and all offenders would be subject to a minimum of a $100 fine per occurrence or some other amount that is reasonable.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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