Survey says: More waterfront parks and trails wanted in West Kelowna

KELOWNA – A citizen's survey shows that waterfront parks and trails are high on the priority list of West Kelowna residents when it comes to spending money on recreational activities.

When asked to select between 10 items for spending “discretionary” dollars – ranging from ballparks and soccer fields to an outdoor pool and boat launches – the number one priority was for waterfront parks. Beautification and revitalization came second followed by bicycle lanes.

A different question found 69 per cent were interested in putting a community trail along the waterfront between Kelowna and Peachland.

Those are just a few of the findings in the survey that was mailed to 1,000 West Kelowna households in June. Out of those, 284 were returned.

For the first time this year, the survey was also offered on-line, which generated 683 results. In most cases, there were small differences between the mail-in versus on-line responses.

Some of the other findings include:

Of those who responded, 47 per cent were retired. That makes sense, given that 44 per cent of respondents were more than 65 years old.

Of those who worked, 47 per cent were employed in Kelowna versus only 16 per cent in West Kelowna and about five per cent who worked from home.

Eighty-four per cent said their quality of life was good or very good – the same percentage never use transit.

The mayor and council were rated as good or very good by less than half the respondents at 45 per cent but that was the same percentage that saw them as doing an average job so only nine per cent gave negative ratings.

Staff got better marks with 57 per cent saying they were doing good or very good, 36 per cent said average and only four per cent said staff were poor or very poor.

It also found that 67 per cent of residents visited Westbank Centre at least once a week.

The full survey will be presented to West Kelowna council tomorrow, Aug. 27 at its evening meeting.

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