Rooftop restaurant met with objections
Editor’s Note: The Daily Courier presents another story in its How They Voted pre-election series looking at how city councillors voted on key issues during the past four years.
The unauthorized construction of a rooftop restaurant called Perch atop the Innovation Centre ruffled a few feathers on Kelowna city council in 2016.
Work on the facility began without the necessary city approvals in what was described as a misunderstanding between municipal staff and building representatives.
“There was never any intent to work behind the scenes or without people’s knowledge,” Innovation Centre representative Jeff Keen assured council on Oct. 24, 2016.
The original plan was for a liquor-primary licence for the rooftop venue, meaning it could function essentially as a nightclub, remaining open till 2 a.m. The prospect of late-night noise was alarming to some Innovation Centre neighbours, particularly residents of the Madison highrise, immediately east of the high-tech centre.
“We’re going to lose a lot of sleep if this goes ahead,” Madison resident Florrie McCallum said.
“We’re talking about seeing a nightclub or a pub developed less than 100 feet from people’s patios, basically right in their faces,” said Lloyd Pederson, president of the Madison’s strata council.
In the face of such criticism, Innovation Centre representatives switched the licence application from liquor primary to food primary. That limited the potential of late-night noise from the rooftop’s open deck to bother nearby residents.
But council members still expressed strong objections to work on the rooftop restaurant, with an indoor seating capacity of 45 and outdoor capacity of 253, getting underway without the necessary city building permit.
“I’m really, really not happy with the way this whole thing was done,” Coun. Maxine DeHart said.
Coun. Luke Stack said the rooftop project was a “significant departure” from the kind of open-to-the-public amenity he said was specified in the original agreement between the city and builders of the Innovation Centre.
“In my opinion, this represents the commercialization of the rooftop,” Stack said. “I don’t think this is in the spirit of the initial deal we made.”
But Mayor Colin Basran countered a theatre inside the Innovation Centre constituted the public amenity the city has sought for the building.
One option open to council was to require all the non-permitted rooftop structures to be removed at the developer’s cost. A majority, however, decided this was unreasonable.
“I’m not in favour of tearing down what’s already there,” Coun. Gail Given said. “I think that would be a sad way to go.”
The specific issue before council at the Oct. 24, 2016, meeting was whether to belatedly issue a development permit for the 500square-foot rooftop structure that had already been built on the Innovation Centre rooftop. Here’s how they voted: Against issuing the permit was Coun. Luke Stack.
In favour of issuing the permit were Mayor Colin Basran, and councillors Mohini Singh, Maxine DeHart, Gail Given, Ryan Donn, Charlie Hodge, Brad Sieben and Tracy Gray.