Big plans for small lots near tricky intersection
Two stages of redevelopment are planned for a pair of adjoining properties near one of Penticton’s trickiest intersections.
The numbered company that owns the A&W restaurant at 1402 Main St., plus the empty lot beside it at 76 Duncan Ave. W., on Tuesday received unanimous approval from city council to rezone the two sites and amend the Official Community Plan for one of them.
The company intends to put up a three-storey mixed-used building at 76 Duncan Ave. E. – which has been vacant for several years after a fire claimed the house there – with commercial space on the ground floor and two residential units on each of the two floors above.
The company also plans to shift the A&W drive-thru approximately five metres east so that it straddles the 76 Duncan Ave. E. property, which the company purchased “with the intent of providing better access and increased vehicular stacking” in the drive-thru, according to a December 2023 letter to city staff from architect Sherri Turpin on behalf of 499410 B.C. Ltd.
The letter notes the A&W restaurant will remain for the “foreseeable future,” although “there is opportunity to further develop the property.”
It’s unclear when that opportunity may arise.
“The timeline hasn’t been shared with us,” said Blake Laven, the city’s director of developer services, when asked following his presentation to council.
“They are making some investments to change the drive-thru, so I don’t think it will be in the short term. We understand that they do want to build the Duncan Avenue property out right away. But whether or not they’re looking at the Main Street property any time soon? They haven’t shared that with us.”
The rezoning applies to both sites, which are now designated mixed-use commercial. The OCP designation for 76 Duncan Ave. E. was changed from infill residential to mixed use, to match what exists on 1402 Main St.
Public engagement on the project ran in January and February, but received just 95 official response forms, which found 84% support for the required OCP amendment.
The intersection of Duncan Avenue and Main Street was the ninth-most dangerous in Penticton for car crashes over the five-year period ending in 2022, according to data from the Insurance Corporation of B.C.
There was a total of 42 crashes at the intersection over that period, equal to Eckhardt Avenue and Winnipeg Street, but far off the 137 recorded at the city’s most dangerous junction of Channel Parkway with Fairview and Green Mountain roads.