Another parkade needed at Kelowna General Hospital

KELOWNA – A major new parkade is the most significant element of a Kelowna General Hospital Area Plan going to city council on Monday.

Work on the plan began in 2016 and deals with the area east of the hospital as far as Ethel Street.

“A 300 to 500 stall deficit for KGH staff parking currently exists, and on-street parking conflicts remain a source of tension in the study area,” states the report by James Moore, the city’s Long Range Policy Planning Manager. Part of the shortfall is because of surface parking that was lost to JoeAnna’s House.

Interior Health sees a parkade as a better long-term solution to more ground level parking. The exact location for the parkade has not been decided and no time frame for construction is included in the report.

Much of the plan deals with land use in the area bounded by Glenwood Avenue on the north and Christleton Avenue on the south. It mainly calls for higher density housing that will be sensitive to other homes bordering the study area.

An early plan dealt with the area north and south of the hospital between Pandosy Street and Okanagan Lake.

The hospital area plan goes to Kelowna city council at its meeting on Monday, Feb. 11.

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