Kelowna

The former president of the Uptown Rutland Business Association (URBA) is frustrated with Kelowna City Hall's apparent reluctance to support their plans for improvement within the Rutland Business Improvement Area (BIA).

Todd Sanderson wrote a letter to council Wednesday expressing his frustration with what he feels is a lack of interest from the city that could lead to the end of the BIA in Rutland.

"Deb Guthrie, who is the Executive Director for URBA has been trying to arrange to have a meeting in Rutland to review the OCP and city staff just got back to her and just said we don't see it as being beneficial." says Sanderson.

"I saw that as the last straw as the OCP is our fundamental planning document, and roughly a third of Kelowna's population is in Rutland."

He also says this hasn't been the only sign of indifference from the city.

"Last year URBA spent around $35,000 putting on the Scarecrow Festival, we applied for a city grant this year, along with Maydays and we got rejected on that. We went through a big charrette last year with the transit station and the city consultant said they could make a big difference to Roxby Square, but there was nothing for it in this year's budget."

In his letter to council, Sanderson also pointed out that "URBA spent its own money to beautify the utility boxes in the area without any City participation. We now see that the City has gone across the City beautifying utility boxes. URBA asked for assistance in updating their boxes and we were rejected."

Sanderson feels some of this perceived indifference is a result of the lack of a voice on council advocating for Rutland.

"For years Ben Lee was a very good advocate for the Rutland area, Brian Given was also a huge advocate for Rutland and was instrumental in getting the BIA in place. Currently on council we don't have that representation."

He also worries that URBA is in jeopardy of losing its mandate with its members next year, and without more involvement from the city, the major landowners in Rutland who have contributed to the BIA may decide they've had enough.

"It's the property owners who vote on whether the BIA lives or dies. Unless we get some improvements happening my worry is business owners will just say it just isn't worth it. We've been volunteering for the last four years, putting in countless hours trying to get something going, and to not get the support of your civic leaders, that's the frustration."