West Kelowna Begins Public Service Administration at New City Hall Building

Friday, May 17, 2024

The City of West Kelowna’s first purpose-built City Hall will open its doors to serve the public with administration functions starting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 21.

The last of the front-counter administrative services from the existing Mt. Boucherie Community Centre are being transferred to the new City Hall at 3731 Old Okanagan Hwy and the City will be ready to serve the public for administrative services starting Tuesday.

The existing temporary City Hall at Mt. Boucherie Community Centre doors will close as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 17 and the doors at the new City Hall will open on Tuesday, May 21 at 8:30 a.m. following the Victoria Day long weekend.

Although the audio/visual installation in Council Chambers is completed, the May 21 Regular Council meeting will be held virtually while the livestream system testing continues. This will allow for the appropriate testing before Council’s inaugural meeting in its first proper Council Chambers.

“West Kelowna incorporated as a City 17 years ago, and being able to welcome our community into its first purpose-built City Hall is an exciting time and certainly one for the history books,” says Mayor Gord Milsom. “Together with the Okanagan Regional Library (ORL), this is truly a civic centre with a beautiful, welcoming building that our community can be proud of. Councils past and present have worked tirelessly to make this a reality and this is the first step in opening the City administrative component of the building. We still have a lot to do but Council and staff are excited to welcome the community to our new front counter for the first time on Tuesday. We’re also looking forward to holding our first Council meeting in Council Chambers when the system is fully tested and everything is in place,” says Milsom.

“We sincerely thank everyone who participated in making this landmark project a reality, particularly to Westbank First Nation who blessed the site on the traditional territory of the Okanagan/Syilx people,” says Milsom. “From the outset of this project, Westbank First Nation has worked with the City and the ORL to provide input into incorporating Indigenous art, language and culture elements in stages. We remain grateful for their guidance as our community partner and we look forward to a community celebration together this summer.”

With the existing City Hall building now closed (at Mt. Boucherie Community Centre), the public will go to the permanent City Hall/Library Building at 3731 Old Okanagan Hwy with operating hours remaining the same at 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except statutory holidays.

All front-counter services will be open at the new building, such as business licensing, planning, building, development and engineering services, bylaw services, property tax and utility payments, municipal fee payments and dog licensing.

Parking may be temporarily limited at times with crews completing interior and exterior finishing work and we apologize for any temporary inconvenience.

The City’s Recreation and Culture Department and the Facilities Department will remain at their existing trailer locations at the Mt. Boucherie Community Centre complex.

This is the first of six service providers announcing that service has started in the new City Hall/Library building. For more information about the City, ORL, MLA, MP, ICBC and Service BC in the new building please visit westkelownacity.ca/cityhallandlibrary.

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