Neighbours sour to Penticton winery lounge proposal

Caley and Trevor Tovell are joining a neighbourhood protest tonight fighting plans for a patio lounge at Perseus winery, right across the street from their home.

“For us it’s a quality of life issue, we moved to Penticton to raise our family, to live in a quiet community,” Caley Tovell said.

The lounge endorsement would allow customers to enjoy a glass of wine on the patio, right now they can only do wine tastings, but neighbours are concerned about increased levels of noise and traffic congestion.

“We understand how beneficial the winery, the tourism agricultural industries are to our town but we aren’t willing to support a lounge, it’s too big of a cost for our community,” Trevor Tovell said.

Doreen Casti, who lives next door to the winery, shared fears about the volume of noise.

“They have a barrier there and the noise hits that plexiglass and there’s times that I swear they’re in my front lawn,” she said.

The winery filed a similar application in 2013 but was rejected due to neighbourhood opposition.

In an attempt to appease opponents, noise reducing glass was installed, a fence erected, and trees planted to improve privacy.

The proposed hours of operation for the lounge were also reduced so it would close at 7 p.m. during the summer months.

“We’ve all been through NIMBY… they’re probably seeing ghosts that aren’t there,” said Perseus owner Rob Ingram.

Next Tuesday city council will decide whether or not to endorse the application to the B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch.

“With this application we are right on the periphery of a low-density residential area and the agricultural area in the community so that is where some of the use conflicts tend to occur,” said City of Penticton Director of Development Services Anthony Haddad.

Neighbours are hoping city hall will be sour to the proposal once again.

“We hope they would turn it down and hopefully for good,” Caley Tovell said.