Rental housing complex wins approval
West Kelowna council praises developer for addressing concerns about ‘ugly’ design
West Kelowna city councillors who maligned a rental project two weeks ago praised its redesign as they approved it Tuesday.
Highstreet Ventures has done a good job of tweaking the design of the 240-suite project to make it more attractive, councillors said. And they praised efforts by the developer to address specific concerns of people living next to the building site.
“A number of concerns have been addressed, and that would not have happened if we had not deferred this,” Mayor Doug Findlater said. “I think the results are awesome.”
At the March 1 meeting, councillors held off issuing a development permit for the project.
Coun. Carol Zanon called the design “ugly,” Coun. Bryden Winsby said Westsiders would call the development “the projects,” and Coun. Rosalind Neis said she wouldn’t want the project built near her house.
On Tuesday, Neis said she now had a more favourable view of the project, which will be built between Carrington Road and Majoros Road. It will provide badly needed rental housing in West Kelowna, Neis said, and include attractive tenant amenities such as a dog park, gym and community garden.
“Hopefully it will not be as bad as I first perceived it to be when we considered this two weeks ago,” Neis said.
Although councillors may have been scathing in their critique of the original design, Neis said she hadn’t heard such criticism from many members of the community.
“It’s a notably improved design from what we first saw,” said Coun. Duane Ophus.
When apartments open in the “condo-quality” building, monthly rents will be about $1,200 for one-bedroom suites and $1,325 for a two-bedroom unit, Highstreet representative Scott Butler told council.
The developer will pay the City of West Kelowna about $2 million in development cost charges, which are fees used to fund communitywide upgrades in parks, roads and other public infrastructure.