A community and childcare centre for Shannon Lake residents will have to wait a while.
On June 10, West Kelowna staff presented a report to council evaluating the feasibility of building a community centre in Shannon Woods Park.
The Shannon Lake Neighbourhood Association (SLNA) proposed the facility to council in January.
Staff noted that the parcel of land considered for the centre currently serves multiple community functions.
The site serves as the main parking lot for Shannon Woods Park’s busy sports field, often reaching capacity and pushing drivers to nearby overflow areas that also fill up. It’s also used by Public Works for seasonal storage, and snow melting, and provides access to a pumphouse.
It is also zoned for parks and open space, which does not permit a community hall, but a city-owned facility might qualify as a civic use and avoid rezoning. A privately operated centre would likely need a different zoning.
The site’s location, in the Agricultural Land Reserve, adds another challenge, requiring an exclusion application. Staff cautioned that could be a lengthy process, and potentially affect other city priorities.
All of council loved the project but noted that the timing wasn’t right.
“With all the other initiatives that we have to wrestle with, priorities that we’ve already identified for staff, it’s not there at this point,” Councillor Rick de Jong pointed out. “I wish we could do an infinite number of projects, but we can’t.”
Coun. Tasha Da Silva thanked the SLNA for bringing the project forward.
“It’s now in all of our heads,” she added.
Mayor Gord Milsom also pointed out that the city has several other projects already in the queue that need to be finished.
“We’ve got a couple of community centre projects happening right now, as well as some other projects that we’d like to complete over the next 18 months, including the new fire hall,” he said.
The report also flagged several constraints. The site is approximately 30,000 sq ft—potentially too small to accommodate a full-sized community centre, daycare, sufficient parking, landscaping, and play areas.
