We wish to clarify some of the concerns raised at city council’s July 6 meeting regarding Interior Health’s application for a temporary-use permit to provide temporary staff parking at the corner of Camrose Street and Industrial Avenue as reported in this paper on July 7.
Interior Health’s application is for a three-year period during construction of the new patient care tower at Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH).
Our proposal is to create about 265 temporary parking spaces that would be shared by Interior Health employees and the eventual construction company’s employees. The temporary parking would be for employees only and not patients or other visitors to PRH.
We expect the majority of employees would cross the street around shift times, i.e. arriving between 6 and 7 a.m. and departing between 4 and 6 p.m. We do not expect a steady stream of people coming and going throughout the day. By the end of the temporary-use permit, Penticton Regional Hospital will be home to a new patient care tower and parkade with about 500 parking stalls. This will bring the total number of parking stalls at PRH to more than 800.
Over the years, Interior Health has worked with PRH’s neighbours to try to alleviate parking issues on the streets surrounding the hospital. The temporary parking lot is essential to managing the parking demand during the construction of the new patient care tower.
Interior Health continues to be a good neighbour and we will keep an open dialogue with the City of Penticton and its citizens. We look forward to sharing more information about our temporary permit application at an upcoming council meeting.
David Fowler,
Director Major Capital Redevelopment
Interior Health