New park appears unlikely to be created any time soon

Neighbourhood group, city so far unable to reach agreement on funding for waterfront park in South Pandosy area

Six months after a neighbourhood group offered to raise money to create a new waterfront park in Kelowna, no funds have been collected.

The KLO Neighbourhood Association and the City of Kelowna have yet to strike a memorandum of agreement, endorsed in principle last December by city council.

“We’ve offered to raise half the money necessary to get the park started, but the city wants us to raise 100 per cent,” Bob Whitehead of the association said Thursday.

Opening up municipally owned properties along Abbott Street in the South Pandosy neighbourhood to public use as a beach would cost between $1 million and $1.7 million, according to city estimates.

There is currently no funding identified in the city’s capital plan until 2027 for the park’s development, says Robert Parlane, a parks manager.

“We would love to contribute half the cost now, but you have to keep in mind the city has a lot of other priorities,” Parlane said. “We don’t even have half the money needed to open that park on an interim basis.”

Allocating city funds now toward the Abbott Street park project would be “jumping the queue,” and that would be unfair to other park projects, Parlane said.

The city owns seven waterfront properties along Abbott Street, near the intersection of Cedar Avenue, with acquisitions dating back several decades.

Frustrated by what members see as the long delay in converting the city properties to parkland, the KLO Neighbourhood Association came forward with the partnership fundraising idea last December.

Demolition of the homes is estimated to cost $75,000. Whitehead says the neighbourhood association has a contractor willing to do the work as an in-kind contribution but that the city isn’t interested in such an approach.

Other costs necessary just to bring the properties up to a bare minimum for public usage include site grading, irrigation, hydro-seeding, path construction and simple park furniture.

The KLO Neighbourhood Association will hold a public meeting on this topic and new developments in the South Pandosy area on June 27, beginning at 7 p.m, in Room H115 at Okanagan College. The gathering will also be the group’s annual general meeting.