Photo: City of Kelowna
UPDATED (2:30 p.m.): Kelowna’s Glenmore neighbourhood is getting closer to a brand new liquor store.
The small store is planned to be a part of the shopping centre currently in development on the corner of Glenmore Road and Summit Drive.
April 24 Kelowna city council gave first reading to a rezoning application that will see the store get built, acting on a recommendation from city staff.
The recommendation to rezone a lot on the property many know as The Conservatory, came a year and a half after city staff initially came out against such zoning.
When the shopping centre was first proposed, in 2015, staff said allowing liquor sales there could mean a liquor store taking up a huge portion of the development.
Since then, the developer has built five of the six buildings it has planned for the site, so a giant liquor store isn’t in the cards.
Without that possibility, city planners support a small liquor store as part of the plaza, saying they don’t expect it to have any negative impacts on the area.
In fact, City Planner Ryan Roycroft says a small liquor store “will reduce the need for nearby residents to drive to other neighbourhoods.”
Should council green light the rezoning, it would allow for a 185-square-metre store at the centre of the commercial site, with extensive parking surrounding it.
Roycroft points out in his report to council the property is “centrally located in the Glenmore neighbourhood,” within walking distance of more than 200 apartments and the 600 current and proposed units of housing on the former Conservatory site.
The nearest liquor store, the Brandt’s Creek Liquor Store, is also nearly two kilometres away.
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