City shouldn’t be selling land at Gyro beach
Editor: Below is my reply to Mayor Colin Basran who replied to my letter of May 24. Dear Mayor Basran, Re: Boyce-Gyro Park and your reply Thank you for your reply of Friday, May 26. I will respond based on your comments.
1. “City staff did not ask for public input on this property” Why not? The property was bought as a parking lot for Boyce-Gyro Park, with taxpayers’ money. Selling off one third of the property is a major decision. I believe a proposal of this nature should have taxpayers’ input.
2. “The portion for sale is currently listed at $4.9 million” Why sell it at all? With the current growth rate in Kelowna, we will need even more park/parking space than we have now.
3. “The sale proceeds will support these upgrades…” Why not use the funds from the sale of the 26-stall parking lot at the corner of Richter and Lakeshore to fund the improvements? Why was the parking lot improvement not listed in the 2017 budget, the five-year financial plan, or the 20-year servicing plan? Does this mean that this project has not been justified or approved by council and has not been designated as a priority item?
4. “The city has conducted parking counts since July 2016.” What about May and June 2016? They are also busy months. Did you see the number of vehicles there and on surrounding streets this past May long weekend? The beach part of the park wasn’t even open and people still came to use the park. Using this rationalization, all the large churches in town wouldn’t need their huge parking lots during the week, and Big White wouldn’t need all of its parking lots in the summer.
5. “…the parking lot design includes significant landscaping…” I don’t disagree that paving and trees will make the parking lot look better, but if that is at the cost of selling a valuable piece of property that we won’t be able to buy back, then I say let’s live with gravel for now, and do the beautification in the future.
6. “This plan provides more than double the parking stalls available before the land was purchased” Isn’t an increase in parking stalls the reason why the property was purchased? The lot across from the park was being sold, and the parking lot within the park was being closed, so the city had to have an alternative. Last year, with all the lots open, there were 188 stalls, so I believe that 132 stalls is a decrease from last year. The population of Kelowna has increased since last year and will probably continue to increase. People will drive their families to the park and they will need vehicle parking.
7. Further, the development of a multi-use path on Watt Road will lessen the parking available on neighbouring streets.
Some letters to editor claim that the neighbouring owner wants the land to make his development more profitable, however, the city is responsible to the majority of taxpayers. Maybe the best use of the neighbouring property is for the city to buy it for future park expansion. Lanfranco Road could then extend straight along the northern border of the property to connect to Watt Road, and the city wouldn’t have to build a temporary road at the northern border of the Boyce-Gyro Park parking lot (per the plans shown at the open house).
Again, I ask that in the public interest, the sale of the parking lot property be cancelled or postponed until further planning can be done for this valuable piece of real estate.
Marian Grimwood, Kelowna