NOW Canada legal battle cost city $39,000
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A NOW Canada housing project slated for the Pandosy shopping district will proceed as originally planned.
Friday afternoon the City of Kelowna issued statements saying a lawsuit blocking the building’s progress had been dropped by business owners who were suing the municipality over parking.
“This was not a detailed set of negotiations,” said Doug Gilchrist, City of Kelowna real estate division.
Gilchrist said the city had provided its list of documents for the law suit, which was headed to the discovery stage of the legal proceedings, and was waiting for the business group’s documents when they received word the group had decided to back off.
Several businesses in the area had joined forces to block the social housing project from being built because the structure would stand on a city parking lot, thereby disrupting the current parking pattern, in their view.
Lawyer Tom Smithwick, representing the business owners, said the “merchants determined it was in everybody’s long-term best interest to withdraw the lawsuit.”
He said the group has decided to concentrate its efforts on participating in the city’s parking study for the area—a good faith move provided by the municipality when negotiations went south last spring.
Smithwick noted the group felt their relationship with the city would “turn negative” if they proceeded with legal action. The municipality has offered to assume its own legal costs, Gilchrist confirmed, which come to $39,000.
No one from NOW Canada was available to comment Friday. The housing project in question will house women and children in need.
jsmith@kelownacapnews.com
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