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Oct 27th 2009 - Letter to District of West Kelowna:
Citizens for a Historic Westbank
3455 Gates Rd.,
Westbank, BC
V4T 1A2
October 27, 2009
Mayor: Doug Findlater
Councilors: David Knowles, Gord Milsom, Rosalind Neis,
Duane Ophus, Bryden Winsby, Carol Zanon
Mt. Boucherie Community Centre
2760 Cameron Road
Kelowna, BC V1Z 2T6
RE: STAFF REPORT TO JASON JOHNSON CAO
FROM NANCY HENDERSON, MANAGER OF PLANNING
RE: WESTBANK TOWN CENTRE REVIEW
With regard to the above staff report, Citizens for a Historic Westbank would like to document the addition of 867 signatures to the petition supporting a Heritage Conservation Area for the town of Westbank, BC V4T.
To date, the total number of petition signatures is now 1523.
Amid the assurances from District staff and Council that, “it will always be Westbank,” the fact is that many businesses in the Westbank down town core and even our own Chamber of Commerce insist on advertising the area as downtown West Kelowna. So in reality, Westbank’s identity and future in the district has become even more fragile.
According to today’s staff report and the recommendations put forth by the RDCO, this revitalization dates back to 1999 and was a revitalization of the town centre when Westbank was still very much an unincorporated town in the province of British Columbia. Now, you are using the same couplet revitalization and asking us to recognize that this will be all that is left of the town of Westbank. You do not have the permission of Westbank taxpayers that their home town should be reduced down to a few busy blocks of highway traffic around the couplet.
As set out in this planning strategy, Westbank will be so small that many of its long-established community landmarks will not even be in Westbank anymore. Take for instance the Westbank Yacht Club, the Westbank Museum, the Westbank Cemetery, the Gellatly Nut Farm, Gellatly Bay, Westbank Rotary Beach, the Westbank Docks, and as the plan shows, all lake access has been taken away from Westbank. The district is being very vague about where the boundaries are; what is Westbank, and what is not, and naturally, people are going to be confused and concerned about the loss of their community. No other community in the district has suffered this upheaval.
We are asking that you keep Westbank. BC V4T as it has been traditionally established; leave it in tact, until the residents have reached a consensus on what they would agree to for the future of their town. This would give us something concrete to build from and include Westbank. This allows it to grow and support this area of West Kelowna.
The 1523 signatures on this petition to save the town of Westbank, BC V4T with-in the District of West Kelowna all agree on one thing: If Winfield and Oyama can be towns within the District of Lake Country, then, Westbank can be a town in the District of West Kelowna. A town and a government are two different things. A town is its people, and the district’s government is its employees. We expect more from our employees than this.
We have asked, and we are asking once again for the district’s planning strategists to hold a town hall meeting to address the concerns about Westbank;
a meeting where residents can discuss and be a part of the creative process. Sticking dots and stars on a plan that is already in place is an insult to the public process.
It must be understood very clearly: the people of this district voted to change the name of the governance of the district. They did not vote to destroy, devastate, and demoralize the heart and soul of the 100- year-old town of Westbank, BC V4T and the neighborhoods that call it their home town.
Sincerely,
Loreta Learmonth
on behalf of the committee for
Citizens for a Historic Westbank
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(Previously submitted documents and information sheets)
District Council has shown no interest in pursuing this type of conservation of Westbank.
Copyright ©2009
Citizens for a Historic Westbank
Protect - Preserve and Promote - Westbank, BC - V4T
