Image Credit: Contributed/BC SPCA
January 15, 2016 - 4:27 PM
KAMLOOPS - Administrators at the B.C. SPCA shelter in Kamloops are aware they have outgrown their current location and it looks like 2016 might be the year a new shelter is built.
B.C. SPCA CEO Craig Daniell says they are looking at an acre of land next to the airport they would like to use for a new facility, if city council approves the proper zoning permits.
“Zoning is either agricultural or alternatively industrial zoning of some sort,” Daniell says. “One of those two zonings are a fit for us, but requires further approval from cities. The animal piece isn’t specifically identified."
Because the location is quite close to the airport, Daniell says airport zoning provisions will need to be addressed as well. Still, the agency submitted an offer to purchase the land, subject to those conditions, last month.
“We’re quietly optimistic that’s going to go through and won’t have any challenges,” Daniell says.
He notes a number of years ago, the B.C. SPCA observed facilities across the province and made a list of 10 locations in need of significant updates or total replacement. Kamloops was near the top of the list.
“The facility in Kamloops is completely inadequate. It’s old, outdated and too small for its means,” Daniell says. He did not elaborate what a new facility would include, but did mention the 8 Avenue property would likely be sold in order to help fund the new location.
As for the spay and neuter clinic on Tranquille Road, he says administrators are considering whether the new facility would include enough space to replace it.
Without disclosing many details of the proposed facility, he says it could be similar in size to one under construction in Nanaimo. The cost for that project is around $3 million.
Within the Thompson-Okanagan, the B.C. SPCA has recently constructed a new facility in Penticton, along with a large animal barn in Kelowna. Salmon Arm is also slated to get a new facility.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
— This story was updated at 1:41 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016 to correct Craig Daniell's title and clarify the name of the B.C. SPCA branch in Kamloops.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016