Parking lot expansion at Kelowna airport doesn’t come cheap

KELOWNA – Kelowna city council has agreed to spend $8.1 million to build new parking stalls at Kelowna International Airport.

Council is in the midst of provisional budget discussions at City Hall today, Dec. 13. The $8.1 million price tag for the 510 new parking spots works out to an average of $15,882 per stall.

Three hundred long term parking stalls will be built south of Mill Creek and a bridge built over the creek. At a cost of $5.35 million, that works out to almost $1,800 per stall. Another 210 parking stalls in a gravel section of an existing parking lot used by staff and aircrews will be paved for $2.75 million, which is almost $13,100 per stall.

In November, council agreed to boost long term parking fees to $14 per day from $12 per day, effective Dec. 1.

Also approved for airport improvements in 2019 was $527,500 for the upgrade of mechanical and electrical systems while $175,000 will go towards fixing up existing advertising signs and looking for new places for ads.

Another $200,000 will be spent to demolish and relocate the stairway up to the second floor of the airport terminal as it’s deemed to impede passenger traffic flow.

A sidewalk on the north end of the terminal will be widened and lighting added at a cost of $175,000.

All the spending items were approved as Kelowna city council started its provisional budget discussions today. The cost of these projects all come from airport reserve funds so there is no impact on taxes.

The only discussion of any items was a question from Coun. Ryan Donn about paving over grassland instead of building a parkade. He was told a parkade was not seen as economically viable at this time but will be considered in the future.

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