Community

Watch: Excitement building for park decades in the making

The proposed waterfront spot was almost never made at all

  • Pandosy soon to new have lakefront access
  • New provincial tax helped fund the project
  • Park will have mobility accessible pier

A plot of land along Abbott Street may not look like much right now with piles of dirt, rock, and rubble calling it home.

But after a long and tumultuous history, it will become the much-anticipated Pandosy Waterfront Park.

“It’s hard to believe this is happening today. It’s hard to believe we’re having it in 2022, when originally the city thought it would be in 2028. So, we’re very happy,” Paul Clark, head of the K.L.O. Neighbourhood Association (KLONA), told Kelowna10.

The association hosted an event called Party for a Park on Sunday, inviting the public to the corner of Abbott Street and Cedar Avenue, next to the fenced off construction site.

There, the KLONA, city councillors, and site developers were on hand to share exciting news of the park, explain what went into its development, and answer residents’ questions.

The KLONA shared how this project started 33 years ago, when the city first started buying properties along the lake.

Everything from condos to a hotel were proposed for the site along the way. But the neighbourhood association discovered the original park documents and opposed the other projects.

Funding would be an issue until the British Columbia government established a new tax called Development Cost Charges (DCC) for parks development.

With it, municipalities levy development cost charges on new developments to pay for now expanded infrastructure, like parks, necessary to adequately service the demands of that new development.

The waterfront spot will feature a paddle sport launch area, in conjunction with the adjacent Kelowna Paddle Centre, which will be upgraded. There will also be a pedestrian promenade, and a pier, allowing anyone to access the lake.

"As a wheelchair user myself, I’m very excited that this park will now have a dock or a wharf,” Clark said. "Then, there will be a ramp going down to a floating dock and that is the best way of getting close to the water for a person in a chair.”

As an optometrist by trade, he also noted how the width of the pier could make the lake accessible to those with sight impairments as well.

The city has already bought two properties next to the park, with plans to expand. But Clark said that likely won’t happen for many years.

For now, the community can enjoy the upcoming waterfront park, which, according to Clark, is expected to be finished in December. He feels there’s no better spot for it.

“This is a logical point that is not on a busy road and a logical point to have a park where people can sit and enjoy the lake,” he said. “It actually has, I would say, probably the best views in all of Kelowna of the lake.”

Published 2022-06-05 by David Hanson

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