A B.C. Supreme Court judge has temporarily halted the City of Kelowna’s plans to expropriate a portion of the waterfront boardwalk in front of the Hotel Eldorado and Manteo Resort.
Justice Warren Milman granted Argus Properties an injunction Friday, preventing the city from advancing its expropriation process while a legal challenge brought by Argus moves through the courts.
The case is the latest development in a years-long dispute over public access to the waterfront walkway.
While the land is privately owned, a decades-old agreement gives the city a legal right of way for public access.
The hotel first closed the walkway during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although a subsequent court ruling upheld the public’s right to use the walkway, access has been restricted or closed at various points since then.
In July 2025, the city closed the boardwalk for repairs after identifying deterioration in portions of the structure.
The city has said it encountered difficulties accessing the area to carry out maintenance, while Argus has disputed the City’s handling of the issue.
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In July 2026, Kelowna council authorized the city to begin the process of expropriating the section of the boardwalk.
The City said the goal was to secure long-term public access and restore an important connection along the waterfront.
In a statement Friday, the city said public access had been restricted for several years and that staff had worked extensively with hotel ownership to find a mutually agreeable solution.
“Unfortunately, those discussions did not result in a resolution,” the City said, adding that expropriation was the only remaining option to re-establish public access.
The city said it could not comment further because the matter is now before the courts.
Argus filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court challenging the city’s expropriation efforts.
In a news release Friday, Argus said it had made repeated efforts to engage with city council and senior staff since the July 2025 closure.
The company accused senior city staff of pursuing costly litigation and what it described as an “abusive use of expropriation powers,” saying the process had taken place behind closed doors without meaningful input from the hotel.
Argus also disputes the City’s assertion that all other options have been exhausted.
The company says mediation or arbitration remain possible avenues for resolving the dispute and has offered to discuss issues including safety, security, public washroom access, liability and maintenance responsibilities.
Oh my, just curious, how much is warren getting paid….. Asking for a friend.
Keep the boardwalk closed. Let the entitled whining Albertans walk around. We didnt mind doing it before they showed up.!
The recent opinion piece submitted by the Hotel Eldorado regarding the boardwalk dispute presents a selective narrative that glosses over the fundamental issues at stake: public access, legal accountability, and community safety.
First, it is crucial to clarify who initiated the litigation and why. The current legal conflict did not begin because the City sought a fight; it began when Argus Properties installed locked gates to block public access along a registered statutory right-of-way that was explicitly established to ensure the public could walk along the waterfront. Both the BC Supreme Court and the BC Court of Appeal firmly rejected the hotel’s actions, upholding the public’s clear right to access the boardwalk.
Second, the assertion that the City acted abruptly or refused to engage ignores the timeline of events. The boardwalk was closed in July 2025 due to serious safety hazards and structural deterioration—issues that were originally brought to light by Argus Properties’ own construction team. Following the closure, the City spent over a year attempting to negotiate terms with hotel management to carry out required repairs. Negotiation broke down not because the City refused to talk, but because the demands put forward by the hotel included significant financial reimbursement for historical maintenance, alongside the right to routinely close the public walkway for private events. City Council rightly determined that restricting public access on a dedicated right-of-way was unpalatable for Kelowna taxpayers.
When municipal contractors arrived to perform the safety repairs necessary to reopen the walkway, they were turned away by hotel management. It was only after these attempts were thwarted that the City pursued expropriation to restore and maintain a piece of waterfront infrastructure that belongs to the community.
While the Eldorado is a cherished piece of Kelowna’s heritage, historical tenure does not grant a commercial operator the authority to override court rulings or restrict public rights-of-way for private convenience. Taxpayers deserve a safe, open, and fully accessible waterfront, and the City is entirely justified in taking the steps required to enforce it.