Facts hard to obtain about tourism centre deal

Editor: With regard to the application for a development permit and development variance permit for the proposed tourist information office that’s coming before city council for consideration on Tuesday, I wrote a lengthy letter to mayor and council, the media and the Office of the Ombudsperson detailing why I cannot support this application.

I reminded mayor and council and the media that bylaws on which the application relies fail to observe Official Community Plan Bylaw 10500 and Zoning Bylaw 8000.

Bylaws 11335 and 11336 are illegal and should not be adopted into law to pave the way for approval of the development and development variance permits.

I exposed several possible ulterior purposes for ensuring that this land parcel was rezoned major institutional. It’s possible that had a public park been rezoned commercial rather than major institutional, public opposition to the rezoning would have been fiercer than it is.

Yet, there are two implications of avoiding a commercial zoning designation that are far more serious than this.

First, had the parkland been zoned commercial, the building’s front yard (east) setback that falls onto the Simpson covenant lands would have been a clear breach of the covenant. The covenant allows no commercial use of the land. It does allow institutional use, however.

Second, had the commercial nature of Tourism Kelowna been indelibly inscribed in municipal bylaw, it would have complicated, if not prevented, the issuance of a non-market lease to Tourism Kelowna.

Council Policy 347 and the provincial Community Charter (a legal instrument) are worded in ways that ensure that businesses are precluded from enjoying free rent for a generation.

I also pointed out that members of the public such as myself might expose more of the faulty decisions relating to the Tourism Kelowna file if the City of Kelowna would stop holding 1,500 promised pages hostage to a payment of $1,935 for their handling and ultimate release.

The records I requested relate to five distinct topics of public interest: the land use, zoning and OCP designation of all site location options for a visitor information centre; the site locations themselves that came under consideration; the financing of the building to be constructed at the Queensway Jetty; the public costs and losses arising from the visitor information centre project; and the non-market lease between the City of Kelowna and Tourism Kelowna.

In a culture of democratic and open government, this information would not be behind a paywall.

City Hall business is public business, and the public deserves to have all the facts.

Dianne Varga, Penticton