Columbia Bottle Depots on Kirschner Road in Kelowna, April 25, 2018.

(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

KELOWNA - Columbia Bottle Depots will be moving out of its controversial Kirschner Road location at the end of September and is searching for a new one.

The depot and the activities of homeless people around it were recently cited by Kelowna city councillor Brad Sieben as an example of why Kelowna needs a bylaw to control how people recycle their empties.

A section of the Good Neighbour bylaw, which has yet to be fully enacted, would prohibit people from dropping off, or otherwise handing over empty recyclable containers to anyone within 500 metres of a recycling depot. Violators could be subject to a $250 fine.

Columbia Bottle Depots owner Clare Cassan said the company has been working with neighbouring businesses on Kirschner Road as well as Kelowna RCMP and City of Kelowna bylaw officers to mitigate concerns.

“It’s an issue and a problem and we’re concerned about it,” he said. “We’ve been proactive as to how to resolve it. But ultimately it’s municipal property and we don’t have any control over their actions and what they do."

Property owner Travis Wise described Columbia Bottle Depots as a “great tenant” but said he plans to make a sizeable investment in renovating the building and the one-acre property and the bottle depot no longer fits in his plans.

Cassan said he was “caught flat-footed" by his landlord's decision not to extend the Kirschner Road lease but said the company will continue to do what it can to be a good neighbour, wherever it ends up.

“We fully expected to negotiate another long-term lease only to find out they weren’t going to extend it to us,” he said. “We’ve always had a good relationship with our landlords and we’ve taken care of his property like it was our own."

Columbia also has depots in downtown Kelowna and just off Highway 97 in Rutland.

Cassan and Columbia Bottle Depots were at the centre of some local controversy in 2010 when the company announced plans to open a depot on St. Paul Street.

Some local businesses and property owners objected to the depot being located near residential developments and demanded the City of Kelowna deny them a business license.

However, the zoning of the property meant the bottle depot was an allowable use and could not be blocked by the city.

Before relocating to St. Paul Street, the downtown depot was located on Pandosy Street near KLO Road and was also subject of bylaw complaints that Cassan describes as “unfair."

“Everything was our fault. They said the depot was the cause of crack houses in the area, the drug abuse going on was the result of the depot, all the homeless coming in was the fault of the depot,” he said.

“The first thing that should be recognized is our commitment to being a good neighbour. We proved that on St. Paul where those same issues and concerns were brought forward at the time,” he added.

Cassan said the Kirschner Road depot serves over 400 customers each business day, the vast majority of which are not homeless and just want to recycle their empties.

He supports the intent of the Good Neighbour bylaw, if not the exact wording.

“I support something like it only because there doesn’t appear to be any other alternative. A lot of people are unwilling to recognize the problem and just want to continue to facilitate it,” he said. “They are intimidating our customers, intimidating other people’s customers. There has to be something done."

Columbia Bottle Depots has been operating in Kelowna since the mid-1970s.

"And we plan on operating for a long time to come," Cassan added.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018