Photo: Amandalina Letterio / File
West Kelowna planners are pleased that a new winery in town has resolved their vehicle access concerns.
The city council postponed a decision to support a lounge endorsement and special occasion alcohol license for the Crown and Thieves winery because of the inadequacy of two country roads in the neighborhood.
While they were in favor, the council was concerned about a large volume of traffic coming to the winery via Angus Drive and Harding Road.
It was felt that the roads were not being expanded enough to cope with the additional traffic.
“For me … the answer really is Brown Road,” said Coun. Rick de Jong during the discussion on January 12th.
Upon returning the application for further review, staff said the owners provided a letter addressing the council’s concerns and including three key points regarding access that were verified by staff.
These include:
- Relief has been granted and registered via 3887 Brown Road (Truck 59) and 3870 Harding Road. The north property provides formal access to the property in question (Crown & Thieves Winery) on Brown Road
- Existing access to 3887 Brown Road (Truck 59) will be used to provide additional access and parking
- The applicant is required to have access as a condition of the business license.
Access from Brown Road would be a condition of the license, which means it could be denied or suspended if that access is no longer used.
According to the personnel report, the winery employees would use Harding Road while customers would use Brown Road.
“Brown Road is a transition area with several new wineries planned and some road improvements to Brown Road can be made as part of neighboring projects,” the report concluded.
