Photo: Contributed

City planning staff are asking city council to reject an application for a hotel on the former Pier Mac gravel pit site across from Kelowna International Airport.

In a report for Monday's council meeting, staff say several proposed changes to zoning of the property would "significantly affect the potential land uses, original vision, quality of development and total vehicular trips generated to the entire area."

Northland Properties Corporation is proposing to construct a six-storey Sandman Hotel on a portion of the site. Northland Properties owns numerous Sandman Hotels across the country as well as the Western Hockey League Kamloops Blazers and NHL Dallas Stars.

As part of its proposal, the company has asked for several text amendments staff have indicated are not acceptable.

They are asking that hotel be added as a principle use in the entire CD15, Airport Business Park zone, although they only plan to build on one lot.

City planner Adam Cseka says that could mean numerous hotels within the entire development zone.

Other amendments Cseka says staff are against include:

• Amend the maximum height in the CD15 zone from 18.0m / 4 storeys to 25.0m / 6 storeys.
• Eliminates the limit on the maximum commercial floor area: a. Section 1.8 (d) “The total net floor area of any commercial use in this zone shall not exceed 3,000m2.”
• Amend Section 1.8 (e) that states all principal facades shall be articulated with glazing or other relief amounting to not less than 30% of the total façade. The amendment is proposed to add the clause “or if the use is Hotel, similar to Hotel developments.”

Northland Properties has also indicated it is not willing to participate in an area-wide planning-traffic study, saying they only want to develop on their proposed lot, and a study would delay their development application approvals.