Fate of new road won’t be known before Monday

Results of petition on fast-tracking of road in Kelowna’s Upper Mission withheld until city council meeting

You’ll have to wait until Monday’s meeting of Kelowna city council to find out whether the $9.26-million South Perimeter Road in the Upper Mission will be fast-tracked.

City staff were going to release the results of an alternative approval process on Friday afternoon, but decided to wait to present them to council next week.

If built, South Perimeter Road would extend two kilometres from Gordon Drive to Stewart Road West, providing a third route in and out of the Upper Mission and a direct link to The Ponds subdivision.

Originally, the road wasn’t expected to be built by the city until 2025, but developers want it built before then to ease congestion on existing roads and provide better access.

The Ponds is a 182-hectare development that will eventually have 1,200 homes, including traditional single-family houses, townhomes and condominiums. The project is already in Phase 5.

It will also be the site of Canyon Falls Middle School, scheduled to open in September 2019.

Because The Ponds would benefit greatly from South Perimeter Road, The Ponds’ parent company, Oracle Investments Ltd., proposed to the city it would design and build the road on a fast-tracked schedule.

The developer would pay for the road up front and then be paid back by the city over five to seven years from development cost charges collected by the city from developers and earmarked for the Southwest Mission.

The alternative approval process allows the plan to go ahead unless 10 per cent or more of city voters sign a petition.

The process ran from Feb. 14 to March 16, with voters able to pick up opposition forms at City Hall or download one from Kelowna.ca.

The signed form had to be returned to the city clerk’s office before the 4 p.m. deadline on Friday.