West Kelowna

The District of West Kelowna has begun the process of finding a new, permanent location for a municipal hall.

The municipality spent $1.8M to turn the Mount Boucherie Community Centre into Municipal Hall.

It officially opened in June, 2009.

At the time it was determined the taxpayer of the young municipality would be better served spending $1.8M on a temporary municipal hall than $15M right out of the gate.

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

At the time, Mayor Doug Findlater indicated the municipal hall had a shelf life of about 10 years.

With the current facility close to capacity, West Kelowna Council began the process of looking at options for a new municipal home.

Tuesday, council agreed to follow the recommendation of consultant Jonathan Huggett and initiate a 'market sounding' exercise on development of a new facility.

The exercise is designed to detrmine market place interest and explore potential business or partnership agreements.

It will give key stakeholders, including the development industry, to provide input to allow the municipality to develop an effective strategy.

The next stage of the process is to finalize a communication plan, engage stakeholders and issue the 'market sounding' document.

Currently a new municipal hall is not part of the municipality's 10 Year Capital Plan.