Photo: Colton Davies

The City of Penticton and Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen may have some operations in the same building in the long-term, but that won't be the case in at least the immediate future.

After board members voted on a five-year lease for space at 105 Martin Street, directly next door to the RDOS board office, Penticton Mayor Andrew Jakubeit suggested it be explored if the two governments could share space for meetings.

"My point was about how we could create efficiencies," Jakubeit said. "Our board room is empty 80 per cent of the time, this room is unused at times. Certainly there would be some synergies... For now [this] makes more sense for everyone... maybe three years or five years from now that's a different scenario."

Staff looked into the feasibility of relocating RDOS board meetings to Penticton city hall ahead of a discussion at Thursday's board meeting. The report noted a pro would be having webcasting capabilities if they relocated, but it outlined 13 cons including parking concerns and limited access for regional district staff, among others.

Board members eventually voted on a motion to have regional district staff look into the feasibility of a joint-use building.

The motion was made by Penticton Coun. Andre Martin, who said it was important to charge staff with an action plan after the discussion which lasted about 25 minutes.

"If this is long term, I don't know why we wouldn't be trying to consult with the province and the feds about having a building that is a government building of the people," Martin said.

Chief administrative officer Bill Newell said it's been discussed several times in recent years if there's an economic advantage to having some joint operations with the city, as their current offices are essentially across the street.

The new lease space at 105 Martin Street will cost regional district taxpayers about 27 cents each, per year. It will be earmarked for the emergency operations centre when needed and for meetings and general office space otherwise.