City opening OCP storefront

Photo: City of Penticton

The City of Penticton is leasing out the former Penticton Auto Sales building at 249 Westminster Ave. as a part of ongoing Official Community Plan public outreach.

The city is planning a three-day exposition — dubbed ExpOCP — to allow residents to share their views on the future of the city and build on the success of November’s PenTALKton event at the trade and convention centre.

“At PenTALKton we had several dynamic speakers talking about some of the challenges and opportunities facing the community to get people thinking about Penticton’s future,” said manager of special events Ben Johnson. “At ExpOCP, we will turn the conversation over to residents.”

ExpOCP will run from Jan. 18-20 featuring displays, workshops and hands-on activities about the economy, infrastructure and more.

“These topics surfaced through earlier engagement events as the areas of greatest opportunity for the city,” says Ben Johnson. “At the expo, residents will have the chance to discuss these topics in more detail and share concrete suggestions which is something people asked for at PenTALKton and other events.”

Drop-in hours will be Jan. 18, 4:30-7:30 p.m.; Jan. 19, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 4:30-7:30 p.m.; and Jan. 20, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The location at 249 Westminster Ave. will also be home to several other official community plan engagement activities over the next 90 days.

"Many communities will establish a storefront to make it easier for the public to get involved in the creation of major plans on an ongoing basis like we did for the downtown plan,” says Ben Johnson. “The showroom in this building is perfect for workshops and meetings with the community around the Official Community Plan and can be used for other engagement activities the City is planning.”