Can’t just change the plan: Kelowna council says no to airport hotel

KELOWNA – Landowners can’t just change their minds about what they want to do, especially when it involves Kelowna's airport and Highway 97.

Kelowna council has said no to a proposal to put a hotel on industrial land in the Airport Business Park across the highway from Kelowna International Airport.

Applicant Pier Mac Petroleum Ltd, which owned the gravel pit originally under the business park, had asked the city to rezone three lots and allow construction of a 120-room Sandman hotel.

Furthermore, Pier Mac wanted hotels added as an allowable use along with an increase to the maximum floor area of industrial developments throughout the business park.

However Kelowna planning staff recommended council not support the zoning change, which they said would result in “odd neighbours” such as the self-storage facility proposed for nearby and undermine the comprehensive development zone which governs the area.

Changing allowable uses so close to Highway 97 also risks triggering a backlash from the provincial Ministry of Transportation, which has some say over developments near major roads.

Staff told council said there are other more appropriate hotel sites in commercial areas near the airport and that allowing the zoning change would add to potential loss of industrial land.

However applicant Scott Thomson of Northland Properties argued that hotels in the area are crucial to the success of Kelowna International Airport and UBC Okanagan. Thomson also argued the six-story hotel is actually complimentary to business development but council didn’t buy it.

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran said he was voting for the staff recommendation because the applicant wasn’t willing to work with the city to revise the CD Zone 15, which had taken up considerable staff time and resources.

“If the landowner worked with the city to get to this point then wants to change the vision, they need to come work with us to change the vision,” Basran said. “I don’t see a willingness to do that."

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