Penticton city councillors back wine bar’s application for increased capacity and longer hours

PENTICTON – Complaints over the hours of operation and parking issues failed to dampen Penticton city council’s enthusiasm for the Mile Zero Wine Bar’s application for an increase in capacity and operating hours.

Council approved the request and forwarded a recommendation of support to the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch for a doubling of interior occupant capacity from 30 to 60 people, and increasing hours of operation by one hour, from 11 p.m. until 12 a.m. from Sunday to Saturday.

The midnight closure hour is a modification of a previous request for a 1 a.m. shutdown.

"This (business) is a nice tie in to the Cannery Brewery across the street. From what I’ve heard there is a new vibrancy on Ellis Street,” mayor Andrew Jakubeit says.

There have been no complaints filed over the bar’s parking issues since it opened earlier this year, which has mitigated initial fears parking would be an issue.

Concerns over the owner’s request to stay open until 1 a.m. were also lessened by Mile Zero's reducing of that extension to a midnight closure, building and permitting manager Ken Kunka says.

Council also received a package containing 17 letters, all approving Mile Zero’s application.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.