It could still be five years before a new road is built from the Glenmore Valley to the UBC Okanagan campus.
Although city councillors are expected today to authorize the budgeting of $1.2 million to buy the necessary land, actual construction of the road may not occur until 2017.
"Hopefully, we can make some deals next year to buy the land we need," Jordan Hettinga, the city's manager of real estate services, said Wednesday. "But no one's forcing my hand to spend that money."
Many details of the proposed extension of John Hindle Drive to the campus must still be worked out.
The exact alignment of the road is still being devised in co-operation with university officials, but the current expectation is that parts of three or four privately owned farmland properties will have to be purchased by the city.
And whatever road alignment is settled upon will have to be approved by the Agricultural Land Commission because the area is within the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve.
Stubs of John Hindle Drive currently exist extending east from Glenmore Road, and west from Highway 97. The missing link will be about 1.3 km, and likely cost many millions to construct given the elevation change in the area.
Current city plans suggest that, once the land is acquired, detailed design work for the road be done in 2014, with construction to occur in 2015, 2016, or 2017.
But the timeline could be accelerated at the direction of city council.
"This road has been identified by council as a priority for this term," which ends in November 2013, said Doug Gilchrist, the city's director or real estate and building services.
The university has already agreed to let the city use a portion of its western campus lands for the new road, said Wesley Pue, UBCO's provost. He notes the link will not only benefit the university, but also provide another way for people in central Kelowna to get to the airport, or to head north on Highway 97.
Hindle, a businessman and entrepreneur, was mayor of Kelowna from 1976-78, and again from 1982-84. It was during his first term of office that Kelowna's boundaries were expanded to include Rutland and the Mission.
Accomplishments during his years in power included construction of the then-cutting-edge sewage treatment system and installation of the popular Sails sculpture at the base of Bernard Avenue.
Hindle is also credited with staging the first triathlon in Kelowna. He had seen a triathlon in Hawaii and thought Kelowna's natural setting would be ideal for a similar event that would draw many tourists to the city. He died in 2006.