Despite marketing, proposed island campground near Hope blocked by government

Hope council has shot down a plan to create a large RV park and campground on an island along the Fraser River.

Croft Island is a small, onion-shaped island located immediately across from the Hope townsite.

The island’s owner, Kris Tasci, hopes to create 150 RV lots, along with 100 campsites, on the land. Over the last year, Tasci has begun marketing the lots, appearing at a local RV show and launching a website that described a “private oasis amidst wilderness bliss” and warned that lots were “selling fast.”

But in late May, Hope’s council rejected Tasci’s application to rezone the land and change the city’s Official Community Plan to allow for the creation of the RV park. District staff, who had recommended the decision, had compiled a lengthy report outlining various obstacles, including the island’s position on a designated “floodway” and a lack of access. (The island is only accessible through the use of a bridge that had been constructed without a permit.)

The district isn’t the first government to object to Tasci’s ambitions. Over the last two years, all three levels of Canadian government have pushed back against Tasci’s development plans for this uninhabited island.

The island

Croft Island sits on the northwest bank of the Fraser, where the river broadens and bends toward the west and just south of the Highway 1 bridge. As the Fraser’s channel shifted slightly to the north a decade ago, it began to erode the island’s southern banks, incrementally shrinking the property.

In response, Tasci installed rip-rap—large boulders intended to deflect the river’s current and prevent erosion—on the island’s southern bank. To do the work, he constructed a small bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

Both actions were done without a permit, and the work drew the attention of the provincial and federal governments.

Although rip-rap and hardened banks can prevent erosion, “constraining” a river can impact fish habitats and increase the likelihood or severity of flooding and erosion elsewhere. Provincial forestry officials wrote that constructing a permanent bridge across the Croft Island channel could impact its suitability as white sturgeon spawning habitat. In a letter to Tasci in 2023, the province told Tasci that the bridge was located on BC Parks land and it would be considered trespassing if he didn’t remove it by March. Provincial officials also said they doubted the bridge could withstand the force of the river without more work on the surrounding bank.

The bridge is still standing today—though the last two years’ freshets mean it hasn’t had to face the full force of the Fraser’s power.

After the province wrote to the district for its input in 2023, Hope staff wrote that they also didn’t support the bridge’s continued existence. (The district noted its own application to protect the riverbank at Hope’s golf course had been rejected by the province.)

Tasci was told if he didn’t remove the bridge, he would be considered to be trespassing, according to a 2023 report by Hope staff..

Since then, the province has also denied Tasci’s application to stiffen the island’s banks to resist erosion, according a new report by staff in May. Tasci is appealing, and a decision may be made this summer. Without bank hardening, district staff said “the campground proposal may no longer be feasible.”

The government opposition to development on Croft Island reflects a changing attitude toward development on low-lying land.

Decades ago, governments might have allowed development on low-lying properties, or required them to be fortified against potentially threatening currents. Now, though, there is an increasing realization that flood damage can’t be averted by incremental, one-off efforts to protect individual properties because fortifying one piece of land can cause impacts elsewhere.

Staff noted that the island is located in an area designated as a “floodway” by Hope’s Official Community Plan. That designation bans the construction of buildings and is intended to limit development in areas vulnerable to flooding while protecting people and property.

The province is updating its flood models and mapping, but until that work is finished, staff say the current flood-management rules will apply.

Before the rejection by Hope council in May, Tasci had been warned that the district wasn’t enthusiastic about his application. Nevertheless, he had lawyers draft a letter urging the district to approve the plans on the condition that the province and federal approve the necessary permits related to the bridge and bank-hardening.

Tasci’s application had argued that the project would enhance Hope’s economy and provide much-needed public camping spots. Tasci also wrote that when he bought the property more than a decade ago, staff suggested that the district would support the creation of an RV park on the site.

But the district said there is too much uncertainty regarding the necessary permits and said declarations by previous staff weren’t binding on the municipality.

They also pointed to a 2023 staff recommendation and subsequent council decision to withhold support for Tasci’s bridge, which had been placed without a permit.

Staff wrote that there were a variety of other issues that would need to be addressed by both staff and the applicant if a new proposal is ever submitted. Those include a stormwater management plan, consultation with Chawathil First Nation, and the capacity of local roads to handle increased traffic.