Initiative commissions survey to learn of Kelownas lure for young professionals
A national survey of about 1750 people between the ages of 25-40 shows a decent knowlege of Kelowna.
That's according to city staff, who gave council an update on the Imagine Kelowna future planning initiative on Monday.
Project Manager Rafael Villarreal says 35% of them said they'd be moving in the next decade.
"Only 6% said (they'd) consider Kelowna, which seems low, but the reality is that when we were ranking it, Kelowna's actually eighth after all the usual suspects," he said
"In population, we're the 23rd largest, but for these young professionals, we rank eighth in terms of preferences."
The people surveyed came from Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Calgary.
Villarreal says one part of Kelowna's name recognition was a little surprising.
"There was some question about people's knowledge of the Okanagan Valley, versus knowledge of Kelowna. And actually, Kelowna ranked a bit higher. So people relate more with Kelowna than (with) the Okanagan Valley, and that was quite a surprise for us," he said.
Later this year, the city will host workshops with a group of people selected at random, and then expand that into larger forums, which will help create ideas in planning the city's future.
Though they've tread carefully on the subject before, council approved a new digital sign to be installed at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on Monday.
Planner Adam Cseke says the plan is to replace the existing sign on the front with a digital one, that matches the same size and location as the current one.
"The proposal is to replace the exisiting sign with a digital sign, that is in the same size and the same location," he said.
"And in this case, the sign is not facing a residential area, the sign is not located on the highway, which are all contributing factors to mitigating the digital sign's impact."
Last year, council voted against allowing the Capri Centre to add a digital sign along the Highway 97 corridor, citing safety and aesthetic issues.
