KELOWNA, B.C. – Parking and future land use around Kelowna General Hospital were under scrutiny Thursday night at one final open house before recommendations on changes to parking head to city council.
City staff are recommending short-term pay parking for spaces fronting the hospital, overnight resident only parking and adjustments to existing time restrictions.
Dave Duncan, City of Kelowna Parking Services Manager, said many changes to parking around KGH have had “quite an extreme effect already.”
“A lot of the issues that we expected to see we actually didn’t,” said Duncan of recent parking assessments around the hospital neighbourhood. “The situation was somewhat better than we expected to see in a lot of areas. There are, of course, some exceptions and some individual areas that they still are under a lot of pressure and we hope, feel that these recommendations will help to improve the situation even more.”
Hospital area residents like Renata Mills, who has lived nearby since 1998, came out to Thursday’s open house to meet with city staff about resolving parking issues in front of her Rose Avenue home.
“What we’ve been sort of been dealing with is the lack of respect for the residents in the area,” said Mills, who said she is looking forward to resident-only parking privileges.
Recommendations for parking have been gathered at past public forums, 600 responses online and by email and will now be forwarded to council for consideration.
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