He instead wishes to build a six-storey, 104-unit apartment building on the Rogers Way site, which is currently overflow parking for the Coast Hotel. On Tuesday (July 20), council voted to approve the first two readings of the rezoning application and to send the matter to a public hearing. The building would contain 35 two-bedroom units, 63 one-bedroom units, and six studio units and would be sold at market value. Mundi plans to subdivide the property so the apartment building is separate from the hotel. Between the two buildings, 495 parking spaces would be in place 150 for the apartment building, in an underground parkade, and 345 surface parking spaces for the existing hotel and conference centre. To facilitate the development, 59 surface lots on the apartment property would be earmarked for the hotel. The L-shaped building would also include 33 bicycle stalls.
“I think at this point, it’s more just proactive on their part, just to make sure they have something in case there’s more issues out there,” McDonald said. Thompson-Nicola Regional District CAO Scott Hildebrand said hotels are at or near capacity in Kamloops. People under evacuation orders at this stage are being told to travel to Salmon Arm, where a reception centre has been established, should they be evacuated, or try to stay with friends or family. Mundi Hotel Group director of sales Angela Tasker said the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre in Aberdeen is full, with about 50 per cent of its rooms (about 100 out of 200 rooms) right now occupied by wildfire evacuees. The hotel is also accommodating crews from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
On May 27, the Tk’emlups band announced it had found the remains of children who were students of the school, some as young as three years old, with the help of a ground-penetrating radar survey (GPR) over the Victoria Day long weekend. Next week’s media event will consist of a presentation on the ground penetrating radar report findings, a technical briefing on the ground penetrating radar work undertaken, what next steps the band will take and statements from Kamloops Indian Residential School survivors and an intergenerational survivor. Speakers will include Tk emlúps Chief Rosanne Casimir, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc’s legal counsel, the GPR specialist it used and other experts and the survivors.