Council laments lack of EV charging option at forthcoming Costco

Photo: Contributed

One Kelowna city councillor took corporate giant Costco to task while, at the same time, calling himself hypocritical.

Luke Stack joined most of his colleagues in endorsing the Costco's development permit application for its new warehouse and gas bar.

But it's what wasn't included, electric vehicle charging stations, that bothered Stack.

"I must admit I find it a bit hypocritical for myself to vote on this. We've been looking so much at trying to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but here's a 12-pump, 24-station mega gas station going right into the middle of our town centre, and I'm a little disappointed they haven't come forward with some sort of electric vehicle option, knowing that's a direction we have to go," said Stack.

"I would have liked to see some leadership. I will support it, but I'm disappointed there was nothing for electric vehicle charging in this application."

City manager Doug Gilchrist indicated electric vehicle charging stations are something the city would like encourage in development moving forward.

"And, as we develop our electric vehicle strategy, it may well be that this moves from an encouragement to something that is required in some form under a bylaw," said Gilchrist.

"We are just not there yet in terms of having an enforcement tool in place."

Council voted 7-2 in favour of the Costco application with councillors Charlie Hodge and Loyal Wooldridge voting against.

Construction on both sites will begin once a building permit is issued within about four to six weeks.