Do nothing if you’re in support of library plan
A new 15,000 square-foot library in West Kelowna won't trigger a big tax hike for homeowners in the city.
The average homeowner currently pays about $80 a year in taxes to the Okanagan Regional Library system.
"That amount would go up marginally, if at all, if the new library is approved," Don Nettleton, chief executive officer of the ORL, said Friday in an interview.
A new library is proposed as part of a civic complex that would include a new 30,000-square-foot city hall. The project is planned for the southeast corner of Highway 97 and Old Okanagan Highway in downtown Westbank.
Between June 1 and mid-July, an alternate approval process will be used to gain consent of West Kelowna property owners for borrowing that's necessary to build the library.
The project would automatically proceed unless 10% of West Kelowna voters sign petitions against it.
Building costs are still being worked out for the proposed library, Nettleton said, with that information to be released in the months ahead.
But whatever the project cost ends up being, it won't be borne only by West Kelowna taxpayers. Capital costs for new branches are shared by property owners in all the 31 communities where the ORL has branches.
“That’s an advantage of the regional system, that these costs are distributed throughout our service area,” Nettleton said.
Unlike the Central Okanagan School District, the ORL does not produce a yearly capital works program, identifying the most urgent building needs.
But Nettleton said it has been apparent for some time that West Kelowna needs a new library to replace the space it has rented for more than two decades.
“We've been keeping our eyes and ears open for a new space,” he said.
In 2020, City of West Kelowna officials approached the ORL about partnering for a new civic building.
“It’s a good location and it would meet our needs,” Nettleton said.
To proceed, however, a skatepark that's located on the site proposed for the new building would have to be moved. Its proposed relocation onto nearby farmland must still be approved by the Agricultural Land Commission.
A 20-storey residential tower is proposed for Bertram Street in downtown Kelowna by the provincial housing agency.
Plans now being reviewed by municipal staff show 162 rental apartments and 14 townhomes in the 63-metre high project, proposed for the 1400 block of Bertram just north of Bernard Avenue.
For the project to eventually proceed, it would require city council granting a height variance. The current maximum height for the property is 12 storeys, or 26 metres.
“This redevelopment will benefit local medium- and low-income seniors, couples, individuals, and families who face significant challenges in meeting their housing and childcare needs,” BC Housing states in its application to the city.
“Kelowna’s downtown will benefit from
the vitality future residents will bring to the area and from the diversity of housing options provided,” the Crown-owned agency says.
The project would have both going-market rental units and homes that are rented at below-market rates, but the exact split is not stated in planning documents now being reviewed by the city.
A 46-storey highrise has been proposed on the other side of the street.
Courtenay and Chris Buckle of Falkland take possession of a 2019 800 ProRML Snowmobile which they won in the Vernon Winter Carnival raffle. In addition to the machine, BDM Motorsports General Manager Brian Bidoski added $1,000 worth of extras, including a fuel can, extra kit bag, goggles and tuques. It didn’t take long for the couple to take their new snowmobile out for a run, hitting the trails around Falkland on Sunday.
The sprinkler system at Kelowna General Hospital is riddled with tiny holes that could trigger a major flood, health officials say.
Replacement of the sprinkler pipes on the hospital’s main floor, at an estimated cost of $500,000, is among the capital projects Interior Health plans to undertake this year in the Central Okanagan.
The capital upgrades — including four new ultrasound machines, surgical equipment to open two new operating rooms, and a new laser capable of performing “virtually bloodless procedures” — will collectively cost $27.5 million.
Central Okanagan taxpayers are being asked, through a levy collected on property tax notices, to contribute $9.8 million toward this year’s capital plan.
One notable change from the capital plan approved last year is that IH has dropped a $20-million plan for a new parkade at KGH.
“Rather than build a single parkade we have determined that the preferred solution is to acquire land with close adjacency to the Kelowna General Hospital campus and to develop surface parking lots on those properties,” IH’s chief financial officer Sylvia Weir writes in a report.