WEST KELOWNA – The City of West Kelowna has almost wrapped up negotiations with a developer to build a new municipal hall and civic centre.
Now it needs the taxpayer approval to borrow up to $10.5 million to build the facility proposed for a site on Elliott Road in the downtown area.
Get breaking National news
“This is a key step in the process and, early in the new year, Council will decide how we will proceed, either through a referendum or an alternative approval process,” says mayor Doug Finlater in a news release.
Besides the city hall, the proposed development includes two residential buildings, a commercial office building and a public plaza.
The developer, Strategic Development Group, also has a tentative partnership with Interior Health to lease a significant portion of the commercial building for the new site of the West Kelowna Health Centre.
“This larger new space will allow us to continue to serve our existing clients as well as provide us with a space large enough to accommodate future growth,” says Interior Health Community Services Administrator Bryan Redford.
The city says the project won’t mean a tax increase for residents as costs are assumed within the current 10 year financial plan.
Council hopes a new civic centre will spur other developments in the downtown area.
“Although complex, and at time, challenging, the choice to work with a private developer, utilizing their land and a small amount of municipality owed land, and sharing a vision where both the municipality and the developer come out ahead, has been by far one of Council’s best decisions,” says Findlater.
Since 2009, West Kelowna City Hall has been located in the former Mt. Boucherie Community Hall.
If voters give the borrowing go-ahead for a new civic centre, the community hall will be restored.
Comments