City not sure about 3rd airport hotel

Plans for a third hotel near Kelowna’s airport have been delayed.

City council on Monday deferred a decision on whether to allow a six-storey Sandman Signature hotel in the airport business park.

Councillors want to get a staff report on how the business park is evolving, and whether the terms of development in the area should be changed to allow more commercial enterprises. That report is expected in January. “I think we as a council need to sit down and discuss what is the future of this area, and then go from there,” Mayor Colin Basran said.

“We need to look at this whole area holistically,” Coun. Tracy Gray said.

The city is fielding many inquiries from people interested in developing commercial properties in areas of the 81-hectare airport business park currently zoned for industrial uses.

City planners recommend council not approve the Sandman hotel, saying Kelowna has a shortage of land for industrial development.

Approving the hotel, planner Ryan Smith said, could invite similar commercial proposals for the airport business park and amount to a “death by a thousand cuts” for the original vision of the area.

Too much commercial development, Smith said, could impede efforts to create a high-value industrial park that might include a high-tech campus and aerospace manufacturing.

Hotel proponent Scott Thompson said that he thought a hotel was, in fact, a complementary use in an airport business park. Compared to other cities, Kelowna is underserved by hotels near its airport, he said.