Photo: Contributed
Proposed traffic improvements around the new Costco location
After years of searching, Costco’s warehouse in Kelowna has found a new home.
In a 7-2 vote on Tuesday evening, the city council approved an application from the big box retailer to reallocate properties on Baron and Leckie Streets for the new store.
The vote came after half a dozen residents of the region raised concerns to the council, mostly focused on transport issues and land use.
While the council asked a number of questions on a variety of transportation issues, most said they were satisfied with the answers provided by urban planner Ryan Smith and Costco transportation engineer Avi Thiessen.
To get a positive recommendation, Costco had already agreed to spend approximately $ 2.5 million on several traffic improvements around the new location.
Number one on this list, according to Thiessen, is upgrades to Leckie Road. This includes upgrading to two full lanes in both directions with a turning lane in the middle, which essentially results in five lanes as opposed to the current four lanes.
Other improvements in this area are:
- Full signal at Parkview Crescent and associated pedestrian crossings.
- Suggested left to left on Leckie
- Full signal proposed on Underhill and Baron Road and associated zebra crossing.
- Reconfiguration of the lanes in Baron and Dilworth and addition of a right turn heading north heading north on Baron
- Flashing pedestrian crossing on Baron and Durnin streets.
“These proposed improvements to the road network came after a year and a half of study and design analysis between Costco, the City of Kelowna and the British Columbia Department of Transportation,” Thiessen told the city council.
These improvements need to be made before the new store can open, which is expected to happen this fall.
Coun. Brad Sieben said he had concerns about how Costco would specifically affect that part of Leckie Road, whether it would stall, or whether improvements would allow it to work the same or better than it does now.
“I always have concerns, but I am satisfied with the answers given by the traffic engineer that the improvements will be significant and will allow better access and better future planning for this road network,” said Sieben.
Coun. Addressing sustainability concerns, Gail Given said this is an ideal location for the retailer to address when it comes to these concerns.
“In my view, keeping traffic-generating facilities like Costco in city centers will reduce traffic. If you place them in our peripheral areas, it will induce traffic outside of the city and actually increase traffic,” she said.
“From a sustainability perspective, it’s the right place.”
Councilors Charlie Hodge and Loyal Wooldridge were the only dissidents on the council.
Both believe this wasn’t the place.
“This is not the best use of this land,” said Hodge. “Good plan, wrong place.”
“I think I’m torn as I see this as a distribution center for goods for local businesses and an employment center for our residents,” added Wooldridge.
“But conversely, I am also in conflict because after 30 years I think that this is the best land use. We keep asking our residents to live in more compact forms, we keep asking them to live in smaller square meters .
“When we hear that other retailers are moving away from parking nearby … there is a huge conflict for me. From the bottom of my heart I cannot support this in the future.”
The new retail store will be 25 percent larger than the current store, with 167,000 square feet and 793 parking spaces.
The proposed gas bar will be on adjacent property, which Smith says is already zoned for such use.
