Coronavirus: Kelowna merchants not consulted on road closure to boost business

It’s a first-of-its-kind experiment designed to give restaurants hit hard by the novel coronavirus pandemic a boost.

Last week, the City of Kelowna closed down four blocks of Bernard Avenue to vehicle traffic to allow restaurants to create or expand outdoor seating capacity as social distancing measures have reduced capacity inside.

While downtown merchants are happy restaurants are getting help, some are upset that they weren’t even consulted by the Downtown Kelowna Association (DKA), which represents them.

“A 10-week event that impacts us all, it’s not appropriate, I think collaboration was necessary,” said Chantal Couture, owner of both Funktional and Frock and Fellow.

Couture has been a downtown merchant for 15 years and told Global News the lack of any consultation has her feeling very undervalued.

“With the property taxes being upward of $3,000 a month between my two stores, I feel like that is a valuable thing I offer the city,” Couture said.

The two-month-long closure affects Bernard Avenue between the Sails and St. Paul Street.

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While Couture said it’s too early to tell what exactly the impact will be on her business, she said the decision has taken away valuable parking spots in a downtown already perceived as not having enough parking.

“It adds up to about 113 spots,” she said.

She’s also worried about the limited access to her stores — not only for customers with mobility issues but for product deliveries as well.

“Some back alleys are so congested that big trucks can’t get down them so my plant delivery, they had to hand truck in four blocks to bring in all the product,” Couture said.

At the nearby Mosaic Books, owner Michael Neill also expressed frustration at not being consulted.

“Extremely disappointing. It’s very, very frustrating,” Neill said. “We didn’t have any consultation and we could have, I think, provided some valuable input.”

Neill said the majority of eateries are located along two city blocks and questions why such a long stretch of road had to be closed.

“From Pandosy right up to St. Paul, which is where they closed up to, there is only, I guess, there are three (restaurants) in the two blocks and they’re not even nighttime places, so it’s not having the effect they needed,” Neill said. “There’s hardly anybody on the street.”

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But the DKA told Global News it believes the closure will be good for all businesses by increasing foot traffic in the downtown core.

“This is all about getting people out of the house, which we haven’t been doing for 100 days,” DKA executive director Mark Burley said. “We’re putting more eyeballs and more feet on the street, who are going to see all the restaurants, all the clothing stores, all the jewelry stores, flower stores, shoe stores whichever.”

Burley admitted there was no consultation with downtown businesses, citing urgency as the reason.

“It was too fast, we had to get it done,” Burley said. “This whole COVID-19 thing, there’s all kinds of reactions and things that were done, that maybe once we do a debrief when it’s all done, we’ll say it could’ve been done better or differently. But I don’t think Kelowna or any other city in Canada is any different in that situation.”

The four blocks of Bernard Avenue will remain closed to vehicle traffic until Sept.8.