Hotel public hearing postponed!
By ROY WOOD
Opponents of the hotel proposed for the Centennial RV Park site in Oliver will have to wait a couple of weeks longer to express their views to town council.
Chief administrative officer Cathy Cowan said today the public hearing scheduled for Monday at the Elks Hall is postponed until Tuesday, May 23.
Cowan said town staff failed to post the required signage at the Centennial site on time. Lawyers advised that the public hearing be put off to avoid the possibility of a challenge to the zoning bylaw amendments required for the hotel project to move forward.
The question-and-answer session scheduled for Monday will go ahead. “(The postponement) gives us an opportunity to provide more information to the public with regard to the development,” said Cowan, “and they have more time to digest stuff before the public hearing.”
Turnout to the hearing is expected to be large, which led council to hold it at the Elks Hall rather than in the comparatively cramped council chamber.
Opposition has been growing.
At a meeting in early April, Cowan told council that only a 15-name petition and a few phone calls had been received at the town hall objecting to the proposal.
One local resident now claims to have collected “more than 500 names” on a petition against the proposal. However, the forces gathering against the idea suffer from a lack of prominent members of the community leading the charge.
The ranks of those in favour of the development seems to be broader and deeper, including most, if not all, of the town council and the business community.
At issue is a proposal from a Kamloops-based developer to build an 80-room, four-storey hotel on the town-owned site currently leased by the Centennial RV Park. The two-acre parcel the hotel would occupy is north of Fairview Road along the west side of the Okanagan River.
An 80-foot wide area between the hike-and-bike path and the library is to be kept by the town and preserved as a civic park for public use.
PROS
Mayor Ron Hovanes has emerged as the main proponent of the development. In a recent interview he outlined the main reasons he thinks it’s a good idea.
Net benefit to the community. “In the last number of years we’ve received very little e benefit from a $1.5-million piece of prime property … We lease it out for $20,000 a year.”
Hovanes points out that Centennial Park has never actually been a public park, but rather a commercial enterprise since its creation in the 1950s.
For the last seven years, the town’s Official Community Plan (OCP) has included “a desire to look forward. Is there a higher and better use for this piece of property,” he said.
Rejuvenating the downtown. “(According to) our OCP and the feelings of our citizens is that the heart and soul of our community is the civic downtown. And the priority is how do we reinvigorate the downtown core,” said Hovanes.
“We’ve had a 35-unit trailer park for the last 50 to 60 years and, really, has it done a lot to reinvigorate the downtown core? You could almost question it. … (But) would an 80-room hotel with a pool and a dining room, open year round, help revitalize the downtown core?”
The mayor is clearly of the view that it would.
Missed opportunities. “We have the firemen’s seminar here, the half-corked marathon, the festival of the grape, our golf courses, our wineries that people tour,” said Hovanes.
“(But) at the end of the day many, many, many of the people who are visiting our area are getting in their cars and going to Penticton or Osoyoos where they’re staying.”
He said a feasibility study clearly showed that Oliver could support an 80-100-room hotel.
“We don’t get a lot of opportunities in our community and here is an opportunity. I encourage our citizens to look at it … very objectively and (ask) could this be a good thing at the end of the day.”
CONS
Hardly anyone thinks, at least publically, that the idea of having someone build a hotel in Oliver is a bad idea. The opposition that has arisen is to using Centennial Park as the site.
Historic site. Fern Gould, who moved to Oliver 18 years ago, says that she has gathered “more than 500 signatures” on a petition that says: “We the undersigned do not want our RV park destroyed. Centennial Park is a historic site we are very proud of.”
Gould said many of the trees in the park were donated to the village of Oliver by other Canadian provinces during the 1958 centennial celebrations and should be preserved. “It’s a beautiful spot. Those trees are so beautiful to see. We’re concreting over our green spaces in this country too much,” she said.
There are other places. Gould and other opponents maintain that there many other options for a hotel, including the town-owned parcel on the east side of Main Street, the empty lot north of the Firehall Bistro, the lot across Main from the Legion, and the areas behind No Frills and by the laundromat near the food bank.
Hardship for RV park users. “People come out here. In summer there are three 14-day baseball camps. The kids are housed at the arena. The parents use the RV park. Same thing with hockey schools,” said Gould.
“We need that park for people with RVs because they cannot afford hotels,” she said.
THE DEVELOPER
Ron Mundi says he was intrigued by an article in a local publication earlier saying that the town was seeking someone to develop a hotel. “After reading that, and doing our due diligence – I’m in the hotel business for 20 years – I feel Oliver needs a new hotel.”
Mundi owns the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre and several other hotels in Alberta.
He said his appraisal company and other projections indicate that Oliver could support an 80-room hotel. “Oliver is kind of a hub of tourism. … It is in the middle, but it doesn’t have a hotel so people stay in Penticton or Osoyoos.”
He said in a recent interview that he approached the town and received a positive response. During a visit he was shown several sites, including Centennial Park and decided that was the best option for his hotel. “It’s on the river, it’s close to downtown it’s not on the main street … (it’s also) close to the hospital, close to the sports arena.”
Asked if he would consider another site if Centennial wasn’t available, he said: “Yes, definitely … but I can’t say 100 per cent yes. I (would) review that after the (town’s) decision.”
Mundi estimated that as soon as he receives a building permit from the town he will begin construction and would open in about a year. If all goes according to plan, that would mean an opening in spring or early summer 2018.
THE DEAL
Mundi will pay the town for the property at its most recent appraised value: $572,000 for two acres.
The price will be paid in cash, except for $125,000 to cover the cost of a public parking lot he will build to replace the one just north of the library and $35,000 for a walking path connecting Station Street to the hike and bike path.
In accordance with the downtown revitalization plan, Mundi will get an exemption on the civic portion of his local taxes amounting to $330,000 over 10 years.
OTHER VOICES
Brian Highly, president South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce: “The chamber is very much in favour of a hotel in Oliver. We always have been.
“It’s a really good opportunity to cash in on the tourist dollars that come to the area. … People come to Oliver for the wine and the wine tours, but they’re forced to stay somewhere else and the somewhere else gets to cash in on the (restaurant and other) business.”
Sheri Airhart, co-owner Maple Leaf Motel: “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t think they’ll do as well as they think they will. …
“We’ve got a pretty short season around here, about a four-month season. They’re going to employ people who are casual and they’ll get laid off (in the off-season.)”
“(But) I’m not worried (about the competition). I don’t think it’ll hurt us.”
Anonymous Oliver motel owner: “Some people talk about the hockey teams that come and stay here … (but) those events don’t sustain you when they only come once or twice in a season. This place is pretty sparse from November to March.
“I don’t understand it. Maybe he was enticed (by) a tax break on the property for 10 years. Effectively he gets the land for free.
“That’s a pretty good deal for anybody who wants to come to town.”