Basran has the wrong vision for downtown

Dear Editor:

In a local interview, I heard Mayor Colin Basran relate that his goal on becoming a city councillor nine years ago was to transform Kelowna’s downtown. And in his words, “boy has it changed.”

I also listened to an executive in the Kelowna city planning department surprisingly state that it was not their department, armed as it is with the OCP, that drives the city development, but the developers.

So here we have Basran, basking in the glow of his own hype of being a visionary when all he and council are doing is passively allowing developers to do what they are doing in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, which is to build on the location and to the height they desire.

A visionary would get away from this North American model and turn to cities in Europe, or New Orleans, for inspiration. Low residential buildings, even downtown, with character where there can be interaction between residents and pedestrians.

Our downtown could use B.C. materials, visible to passersby to showcase our province. We could have Indigenousthemed buildings.

Where are the Indigenous architects like Douglas Cardinal whose works flow out of the land? We need to complement the lake, not pile up 2-4 storey parking podiums. We live in a rural valley, yet mayor and council are allowing development in the image of Yaletown.

And on the former RCMP property the Basran vision sees more highrise apartments. How original.

Don Henderson, Kelowna