AI rendering of proposed RCMP headquarters in Kamloops/via City of Kamloops
Be prepared for some significant disruptions through downtown Kamloops if the go-ahead is given to spend around $150 million to build a new RCMP headquarters in Kamloops.
A new set of designs was delivered to Kamloops Council as part of a Tuesday Committee of the Whole session.
Among the details provided about the proposed construction plans was a more fulsome assessment of the impact the construction is likely to have in the immediate and surrounding areas — particularly Battle and St. Paul Streets through the 600 and 500 blocks.
“There’s going to need to be, potentially, some lane closures as we go through,” cautioned Infrastructure Delivery Divisional Manager Matt Kachel. “We’ll have thru traffic, but there could be one lane taken out for deliveries…keeping an area for a large delivery semi [tractor-trailer] to come in with steel or various materials that are needed to construct the building.”
Kamloops RCMP detachment parking lots as seen from Battle St. (top), St. Paul St. (left), which includes a fenced off, overflow parking area (right), which is where proposed new RCMP headquarters will be located/via Paul James
At this point, Kachel says the immediate neighborhood around the detachment at 6th and Battle has not had a chance to talk about the expected impacts with the City.
“There hasn’t been community engagement or any advancement done on this, because we didn’t have approval to move forward with the project,” said Kachel. “So if this did go forward and we’re able to start the design of the off-sites, then we would work with our transportation team to make sure that this is done in line with what they need.”
The plans to accommodate the construction include essentially turning St. Paul and Battle Streets through the 600 and 500 blocks into Qusai-parking lots for the RCMP, while establishing so-called “off-sites” to allow construction crews to park during the three years worth of construction the City is anticipating.
By necessity, the City is going to have to do something it’s been pushing back against for decades — a switch on St. Paul and Battle Streets (in the 600 and 500 blocks) to angled and back-in parking.
“I think this has been asked and talked about for better part of a decade in the downtown core and it hasn’t been supported by staff,” argued Councillor Mike O’Reilly. “I am a proponent of it. I think it’s a good thing. I think this will be precedent setting for when we do other redevelopments that we’re talking about in the future.”
On top of shifting the parking dynamics on St. Paul and Battle, Kachel has also revealed a further disruption will be coming to those living in the immediate area.
AI rendition of proposed RCMP headquarters renovation/via City of Kamloops
“Battle Street also forms the corridor where we have planned to bring power through to the Performing Arts Center and to power this building as well,” he noted.
Ultimately, Council’s Committee of the Whole did approve pushing forward the ask for the $150.7 million to the residents of Kamloops, with Councillor Nancy Bepple cautioning that opponents of municipal spending may have to endure another AAP.
The Alternative Approval Process has been decried by those opposed to spending on the Build Kamloops projects as undemocratic and a ploy to push through favored projects.
A pro-forma vote will still be needed to launch the public assent process, which City Staff is recommending be done as quickly as possible to try to ensure that costs don’t start becoming overrun by delays.
Mayor presses for review of location
The site of the RCMP’s new home in Kamloops is planned for the RCMP’s parking space directly to the west of the existing headquarters.
While this proposal has been worked on — behind the scenes — for the past year or so, Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson did suggest that alternative locations for the new RCMP headquarters could be considered, after being told that City staff only focused their attention on the Battle Street site.
“I’m just really kind of wondering why we didn’t, or why we couldn’t — or maybe we can — look at different options so that we don’t have to disrupt all the traffic, we don’t have to disrupt the RCMP, we don’t have to disrupt the whole city,” suggested Hamer-Jackson.
He specifically pointed to the Precinct area directly south of the current RCMP location off Columbia Street, which is home to the Court House and other provincial assets.
Hamer-Jackson also floated the area of the Yacht Club on River Street, next to Pioneer Park, which is currently being utilized as a winter shelter for those hoping to stay off the streets.
Notification of potential development opportunities on Precinct lands in Kamloops through the BC Builds initiative, posted July 24, 2024/via BC Housing
The suggestions eventually drew a rebuke from the City’s Chief of Staff, Acting CAO Byron McCorkell.
“The vacant land you speak of [Precinct area] is owned by the Province, and we’ve had ongoing conversations with them about the Precinct plans with regard to housing and a number of other projects,” noted McCorkell. “But currently it’s not for sale, nor do they want to trade it for anything. So at the end of the day, we have a problem that’s 25 years old, and we need to resolve it.”
The City has been under pressure from the Mounties, including E-division in Surrey, to create a new Kamloops RCMP headquarters, as the existing building became overloaded with personnel around a decade or more ago.
It’s to the point at which the City is being warned that a failure to find the detachment a new home could trigger intervention by Ottawa.
That could include the federal government stepping in to create its own Kamloops headquarters, then simply handing the City a bill for it after its built.
