Why Kelowna’s newest waterfront park is delayed

Construction has not started on its Pandosy Waterfront Park while it waits for an environmental permit from the Province of B.C. but not because artifacts were found there.

The city bought houses along the waterfront near Cedar Avenue over many years and planned to build the park in 2025/26 but that was moved up to this year.

Plans to demolish the houses on the site were delayed when artifacts were found in November 2020, Andrew Gibbs, the city’s senior project manager, told iNFOnews.ca.

“The site artifacts were identified as worked wood, lithics and bone (animal); nothing substantive,” he wrote in an email.

The City of Kelowna’s Get Involved website has a question and answer section on the park, where four people asked why construction had stopped and when it would restart.

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“The project is delayed due to requisite provincial permitting as a result of discovering a 'thumbnail-size' artifact during structural bore hole investigations,” it states four times. “All work on the new park (outside of the residential house demolition) was effectively stopped until the ministry gives the city permission to proceed. We anticipate that approval during the upcoming month.”

The same answer is given to questions whether they were asked three months ago or one month ago.

The reality is that the houses were demolished earlier this year but construction has not started while the city waits for the environmental permit because some of the work will be along the lakeshore, Gibbs explained.

Expectation were that the first phase of the park would have opened this fall, he said.

So, when will it open for public use?

“About this time next year,” Gibbs speculated.

He’s hoping the environmental permit will be issued within the month so work can be done in the lake when the water level is low in February or March.

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