Council confusion; former Daily News building to remain untouched

Dec 15, 2015 | 2:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — The former Kamloops Daily News building will remain standing, for now.

Council has voted in favour of tabling the issue of demolishing the building to make way for parking, and then wallowed in confusion as it tried to determine the implications of that vote.

The motion will come back to council after one year.

Council won’t be able to discuss options for the site during that time, something that led some councillors to express regret at the outcome of the tabling vote.

Staff have told council they will return with procedural options in the new year.

Councillor Donovan Cavers was one of five councillors who opted to hold off.

“For instance the Royal Inland Hospital, I think there are around 300 parking stalls coming online in the next few months, I think the prudent thing to do is to see what happens when those new parking stalls get added in to the mix,” said Cavers. 

The original plan when the city purchased the property was to demolish the building to make way for surface parking.

That was delayed while the city decided whether or not to build a performing arts centre on the site, an idea that was defeated in last month’s referendum.