To the editor:
If I owned a business along Bernard Avenue I would be very wary of the City of Kelowna’s offer as reported in your article of March 26. (Kelowna’s Perky Patio Plan Approved))
For the following reasons:
1. It will cost you over $100 per square foot per year. And that’s only the first year—there’s no guarantee that the city will not raise them in the future. (When have fees not risen or when have fees been lowered?)
2. How are square footages going to be calculated? Are they going to be from the edge of the road to the business front or what?
3. You will have to pay even if no one uses the patio. Who wants to sit outside when it’s snowing out or there is a howling wind blowing?
4. Are you going to be able to put a canopy over your area?
5. If you do go ahead and put in a fancy patio and you have to go right to the road with whatever design you go with, will you be able to put tables, benches, etc. right to the road edge? I don’t think so. You’d have a bylaw officer writing out tickets for blocking pedestrian traffic.
6. What kind of design and what kind of materials are going to be used? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also, you will be responsible for any lawsuits for you are the one that put the patio in.
All this is, is a blatant ruse from the city to have someone else pick up the cost of re-constructing sidewalks.
Doug McNair,
West Kelowna
