Penticton Beach Has Turned Into 'Kinky Swingers' Area: Angry Neighbours

A months-long fight between nudists in Penticton, B.C. and property owners in the area has led to a "shaming" website and a date in front of city council.

For years, nudists had been using a secluded property on Three Mile Beach on Okanagan Lake, reported Castanet. This past summer, the property owner who was selling the land hired security guards, and erected fencing and "No Trespassing" signs to keep them out.

Consequently, the nudists moved to a public part of the beach.

Landowners in the area want the city to implement a bylaw banning nudity, because they say dozens of naked people are still accessing the private property as well as the city-owned beach for sexual encounters.

Matt Fraser's family has owned a property on Three Mile Road since 1951. He said the problems have grown over the last 15 summers.

"Most of these people are drinking etc. and it just turned into a kinky swingers type beach/area," Fraser wrote in a letter to Penticton council.

He points out that families and kids no longer feel safe going to the beach, and that the activity is driving down property values.

The owners have also created a website featuring surveillance images of people who are allegedly trespassing on a private trail on their way to the beach. It also accuses people of vandalism, squatting, and indecent acts.

“We are looking for assistance to identify all of the trespassers. The neighbourhood has not ruled out a lawsuit against these people,” Katya Kuzina told the Western News. The images appear to be taken in the summer of 2014.

But Dustin Wolchina, a spokesman for the naturists, told Infotel the majority of them are respectful, and anyone causing problems may not actually be part of their community.

Penticton city council is slated to hear the issue on Monday evening. Mayor Andrew Jakubelt said he'd like to see a compromise like possibly designating a clothing-optional beach, reported The Province.

Wolchina started a petition to save the clothing-optional tradition. He told the Western News in May that visitors from "all over the world" visit Three Mile Beach.

“We have everybody from bikers to cross-dressers, businessmen, lawyers, families with kids, air force pilots," he said. "You name it, we get them down here."