Credit union wants to turn empty lot into parking lot
After sitting vacant for 15 years, there could be new life for the property that used to house a 7-Eleven store and gas bar at the corner of Westminster Avenue West. and Winnipeg Street.
Penticton city council gave first reading Tuesday to a proposal from Valley First Credit Union to develop the property as a parking lot for employees.
The lot would be available after hours and on weekends for the public. It’s unknown if this would become a paid lot or free to the public.
“It’s a prominent corner in the downtown. What would it take to bring some life there other than a parking lot?” Coun. Helena Konanz asked.
“We don’t have a lot of empty land in our downtown and I’m not happy that it’s proposed to be a parking lot.” The majority of council disagreed. Coun. Judy Sentes referenced the Landmark Cinema complex, which opened in 2012 and still has inadequate parking. She said some people have told her they don’t go to the movies in Penticton because of a perceived lack of parking.
“We want people to come to the downtown,” Sentes said.
Due to being a former gas station location, the site was contaminated, but a certificate of compliance allows for a building to be placed on the lot, but with restrictions, planner Blake Laven told council.
The developer will remove driveways to the property and install curbs. The lot will be paved. The developer also proposes planting trees to serve as a landscape buffer on a cost-sharing basis with the city.
Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said some parking will be lost when an affordable housing project is completed on nearby Brunswick Avenue.
The issue will now come before a public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Anybody wishing to comment on the development may address council. The hearing, one of several booked for that evening, will be held at Penticton City Hall beginning at 6 p.m.