Housing plan dividing urban and rural politicians
Plans for a proposed development site with up to 140 new homes at the far north-west corner of Okanagan Lake were moved along the approval process this week.
But discussion on the project revealed a considerable difference of opinion between politicians representing rural communities and those from urban areas in the Central Okanagan.
The two rural directors said the project could bring some long-sought amenities to the Valley of the Sun community, north of Fintry provincial park. Those benefits might include a school, 24 ha of parkland, and better roads.
Urban directors, however, said the project represented an undesirable form of residential sprawl, and they raised concerns with its possible impact on the environment and archaeology sites.
As per voting rules with the Kelowna-based regional district board, only the two directors representing the unincorporated rural areas were able to vote on the development proposal. Both of them, Wayne Carson and Kevin Kraft, voted in favour and the proposal will continue along the planning process.
“This is a particular opportunity for an under-serviced area,” Kraft said. “We’re at a point of desperate need to accommodate unique styles of growth . . . it’d be ignorant not to give this the opportunity to go through the many steps that they will have to go through.”
Carson said: “I’d like to see this go to a public hearing so we can get the community involved and see how they feel about it.”
Directors representing Kelowna, West Kelowna, and Westbank First Nation acknowledged they did not have a vote on the matter. But many of them still spoke at length against the project.
Charlie Hodge, a Kelowna city councillor, was concerned about the development’s possible impact on some wetlands.
“There’s an irony to all of this,” Hodge said. “We’re debating potential growth in an area we champion as rural, and yet if we continue to add (growth) I question how rural it will become . . . . My concern is the overall environmental impact.”
Loyal Wooldridge, board chair and another Kelowna city councillor, said the board should not go against the recommendation of regional planners, and members of two citizen advisory committees, who all recommended the proposal be rejected at this early stage.
“We can’t say that we are going to preserve the environment and then continue to sprawl in those areas,” Wooldridge said.
In response, the two rural directors noted most homes were built in the areas decades ago, and they likened the proposal before the board as similar to the kind of residential densification initiatives the provincial government and local municipalities are embracing and encouraging for urban areas.
The proposed development site covers 84 ha and approximately 35 km north of West Kelowna.
With the board’s direction, regional staff will continue working with the developer and bring the project back to a future public hearing for the necessary rezoning consideration.