Owner of home-based business appeals to Kelowna council to get a license

Photo: City of Kelowna

The owner of a home-based business in Kelowna is willing to fight city hall in order to obtain a business license.

Manjeet Sindu, who has been operating a home-based spa in Kelowna since 2014 is appealing to city council after city licensing staff turned down her application for a business license in her new home due to a lack of parking.

Specifically, one parking space.

According to a staff report supporting the decision, Sidhu moved into a newly constructed single-family home with secondary suite in the Wilden neighbourhood in December of last year. The home includes a double car garage and double wide driveway.

This permits a single parking space for the suite and tandem parking for the principal dwelling. Staff further state the property's zoning allows for both a secondary suite and home-based business which would require four parking stalls including one for the home-based business "which cannot currently be accommodated onsite."

In her letter seeking council's support to overturn the decision, Sidhu says while she, her husband and tenant all have vehicles, hers is always parked in the garage unless she is getting supplies for the business.

She adds her husband works in West Kelowna and is gone during the hours in which she operates her business (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

"This creates two spots on the driveway openly available for my clients to park when coming to the spa," she writes.

She says the parking provisions within the zoning regulations require a minimum of one and maximum two parking spaces for a home-based business major which she says are clearly being met during the hours she operates the business.

Staff indicate the home-based business land use does allow for up to two clients at one time and one employee, adding the potential additional traffic this could bring to the property is why an additional onsite parking space is required.

The report suggests several solutions including relocating the business to an appropriate location, seeking a variance to lower the number of parking spaces required to three or decommissioning the secondary suite to permit the home-based business land use.