Thumbs Down on Waterfront Visitor Centre

Time is running out to persuade City Council to reconsider their support for the proposed Tourism Kelowna Centre on the Queensway Jetty waterfront. A Public Hearing is presently scheduled for January 24th; 6pm @ City Hall. If Council is not convinced of a very considerable public opposition this project will happen.

The primary reason Tourism Kelowna provides for moving from their present Downtown highway position to the waterfront is the decreasing visitor attendance from 55,000 to 20,000 over the past few years. A rational analysis would undoubtedly conclude this is more than a location problem. Looks like a “Hail Mary” to offset a Bricks & Mortar Model being squeezed by the Internet. The question is should the residents of Kelowna be prepared to provide this premium location for a Visitor Center? The present Parks zoning will provide a continuous open view Park development from Stuart to City Park. This is a narrow section of Parkway and the proposal is to drop a 3,000 sq. ft. 2 story Visitor Center in the middle of it.

On Dec 12th Council unanimously passed 1st Reading of a zoning change from P3 – Parks & Open Spaces to P1 – Major Institutional. Tourism Kelowna is executing an aggressive campaign which includes a massive letter writing to Council to garner its support. Opposition from the Citizens in 2013 stopped a Visitor Centre in City Park. Opposition to locating the Visitor Centre on the Queensway Jetty in March resulted in Tourism Kelowna resubmitting their proposal with minor tweaks and considerable misinformation.

The vaunted “Proposed Visitor Centre” Survey created by Peak Communications in Vancouver and conducted by Tourism Kelowna at the Nov 9th Open House is biased both in content & how it was conducted. The questionnaire was on I-Pad’s being held and completed by Tourism Kelowna reps. Survey results are compiled based upon 159 of the 324 attendees. It would seem reasonable a good percentage of the 163 declining the survey may have been opposed but felt very uncomfortable with the lack of privacy while completing the questions. In any case the numbers are slow to be statistically irrelevant.

Question 5 from Survey: “Are you aware that the proposed Visitor Centre is 40% smaller than the plan announced in March and that the building is realigned to remove it entirely from the Simpson Covenant Lands?” This made a big headline in the Media and congratulatory comments by Council members. In fact the building envelope appears to the same as the March proposal with the same footprint, elevations and remaining a 2 story structure. The only significant difference is the 2nd floor Administration space has been removed. Looks like a straight forward project to add it back in at some future date.

Consistently a majority of citizens has opposed locating a Visitor Centre on the waterfront. Leave this narrow strip of land presently zoned P3 – Parks & Open Spaces that we may all enjoy an open view of the lake. The justification for a Visitor Centre in this location is simply not there. If you oppose this proposal you best send a note to Council ASAP because Tourism Kelowna is pushing hard to make this happen. After Jan 24th it will be too late.