City council briefs: Dogs, seniors and water on the agenda
Three-dog right could be approved
A family whose application to keep three dogs on their Barnhartvale property was shot down last month by city council will get a second chance to argue their case.
Kamloops council this week agreed to allow Otto Duczak to appeal the decision.
He will make his pitch on Oct. 16.
In a 5-4 vote on Sept. 18, council decided to not allow the Duczaks to keep three dogs because of the family’s history of dog-at-large complaints.
Spina suggests senior speed zones
A Kamloops city councillor is pushing for a pilot project that would see new reduced speed zones created in areas with large populations of seniors.
Marg Spina has asked the city’s traffic planners to look at creating what she calls “senior speed zones.”
The suggestion comes after resident Errol Borsky wrote to council to complain about safety conditions on Desmond Street in Brocklehurst, where pedestrians and vehicles are separated by a painted line, rather than an elevated sidewalk.
Borsky said he and his elderly mother, who is a resident of Riverview Lodge, are often startled by vehicles while walking on the street, with cars sometimes swerving at the last minute to avoid them.
Spina said Desmond Street could be a good location for a speed-zone pilot project.
“I think it would be a very low-cost thing that we could try,” Spina said. “There’s only one thing worse than having something fail — and that’s not to try anything.”
Public to have input on development idea
A proposed Westsyde subdivision across from the Dunes Golf Course is headed to public hearing.
Kamloops council has voted unanimously to hold a hearing on the rezoning of 4000 Westsyde Rd. from agricultural to country-residential.
The move would allow owner West Pince Development Ltd. to split the nine-hectare parcel into six lots (the smallest lot size allowed under its current zoning is eight hectares).
Development and engineering services director Marvin Kwiatkowski told council the property does have some rockfall issues due to steep cliffs on the site’s southwest corner, though the hazard is considered very low.
To address that, city staff are asking that portions of the parcel that aren’t developable be zoned as open space.
Campbell Creek water-connection costs rise
Households in Campbell Creek are a step closer to joining the city’s water system. but costs for the project have already exceeded initial estimates.
Kamloops city council has agreed to introduce a borrowing bylaw for the project, which will see the construction of a new booster station and water mains connecting Campbell Creek to the Kamloops Centre for Water Quality.
Council has also agreed to increase the amount budgeted for the project by more than $500,000.
Assistant director of finance Doug Stewart told council the project involves significant road and landscape restoration work not accounted for in the original estimate.
It’s also going to cost more than expected to bore under the highway and railway tracks.
The total cost for the project is now projected at $3.4 million.
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