Kelowna News

After being on hold for about three months, expansion plans for the Kelowna Yacht Club basin are moving full speed ahead.

Expansion plans, which have been in the works for about two years, were put on hold while the city explored the possibility of utilizing the old bridge pontoons as a breakwater around the marina.

Those plans were scuttled when the city was unable to come up with a firm decision before an August 17 deadline imposed by SNC Lavalin.

With the 'sinking' of the pontoon option, yacht club manager, Randy Prost, says the club has resurrected the old plan.

"It is before Front Counter B.C. in Kamloops and we are working to have it proceed as fast as we can," says Prost.

"We're looking at adding about 250 slips. Obviously we're not going to do that all at once because it costs a lot of money to move breakwaters around."

Prost says the additional slips will be phased in over a three to five year period.

Once approved, the first phase would see expansion to the south of the marina.

"We have approval from our membership to increase the moorage on the south side of the breakwater and to put in one set of slips further west. That would probably give us another 100 or more slips."

Prost says they still need approval from the city and the province to do that.

The yacht club is hoping to have all the necessary approvals in place before the end of the year.

If that happens, Prost says construction could begin in early spring of 2010.