South Pandosy developer wants to go six storeys high
A six-storey building with 17 homes is proposed for the South Pandosy neighbourhood.
The project, now under review by Kelowna city planners, is proposed for 417 Cedar Ave., just west of the corner of Pandosy Street and KLO Road near the shore of Okanagan Lake.
The maximum building height currently for the property is four storeys so, to proceed, city council would have to grant a variance.
Permitting the extra height, the developer argues, is justified because it would allow more people to live there and thus conform to the city’s goal of increasing residential density in the South Pandosy neighbourhood.
“Achieving 17 residences on the property while being sensitive to the neighbourhood was felt to be important from a location and sustainability perspective,” architect Matt Johnston of Lime Architecture writes in a letter to the city.
There’s been a flurry of development proposals for the South Pandosy area over the past number of months.
Members of the KLO Neighborhood Association have suggested that’s due, in part, to the imminent increase of certain development-related fees payable to the city that will add significantly to the cost of building in Kelowna.
Some members of the association have also said the district is changing too rapidly, with large projects that are out of keeping with the neighbourhood and which aren’t welcomed by many people who already live there.
But Mayor Colin Basran has defended the city’s approach to guiding development in South Pandosy, saying the goal is to create a vibrant, higher-density neighbourhood with a variety of shops and business that people can walk to, decreasing reliance on automobiles.
“I do believe the official community plan has done a very good job of guiding development in South Pandosy,” Basran said in October, when council approved a 320-home project, including a tower of up to 14 storeys, for the neighbourhood.
“The proof is in all the people who want to live there,” Basran said at the time.
There is as-yet no date when council will consider the height variance being requested by the developer of the Cedar Avenue proposal.