Penticton Lawn Bowling Club looking for new home after 83 years on Brunswick Street

PENTICTON – The president of the Penticton Lawn Bowling Club is hopeful the group will find a suitable new location following the surprise announcement the land the club sits on will become affordable housing.

Plans to build as many as 70 affordable housing units on the Brunswick Street property now occupied by the Penticton Lawn Bowling Club were announced Monday, Nov. 9.

Bechard says his club was given no advance notice.

“We received a letter the same time they made the announcement,” he says. "It was a bit of a surprise.”

Plans to develop the club’s parking lot in an initial phase of development are slated for next year.

Bechard says the parking lot was always located on city property. The lawn bowling club used a portion of it for their members over the years.

“Apparently next summer that will be gone. That’s when they’ll be putting the shovel in the ground,” he says, adding the clubhouse should be secure until 2020.

“We have to take what is laid before us and go on," Bechard says. "We’re going to work with the city, and when our lease expires in 2020, hopefully we’ll have a place to move to.”

He says the club is working with the city to find a new location.

“We’ve got to work closely with them, but it’s hard to say what’s going to happen down the road,” he says.

The Penticton Lawn Bowling Club currently has 60 members. The club has been in the city since 1929, at the Brunswick Street location since 1932, making relocation difficult for a number of the club’s senior members.

"We’re active. In the summer, the property is used every day. In the winter, we still have functions — we had one yesterday — once or twice a week we use the club and we also rent out the facility to different organizations,” Bechard says.

Bechard says some of the older members who have been part of the present location through many years and many improvements are disappointed.

“They are mainly upset over sentimental reasons. We’ve enjoyed the location. It’s been very convenient for a number of members"

City of Penticton communications officer Simone Blais says it’s too soon to say where the lawn bowling club might relocate.

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.