Council approves downtown zone

by Wayne Moore - Story: 42291
Oct 7, 2008 / 5:00 am castanet.net

Kelowna City Council has given its approval to a comprehensive downtown re-development plan. Council unanimously voted to move the controversial proposal forward to public hearing. The public hearing for the four block re-development, bordering Harvey Avenue, Queensway, Abbott and Water streets, will be held Monday, October 20 at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Due to the interest and importance of the plan, council changed the traditional start time to 4 p.m. Community Development Manager, Doug Gilchrest, outlined the proposal for Council Monday. The four block area, which would be divided into nine sub areas, includes 13 towers, ranging in size from 12 to 27 storeys.

"Originally when we started out with this plan, we were as high as 32 storeys and we had more buildings of that height. We've since come down and listened to some public input and we now have four buildings with a maximum of 27 storeys," says Gilchrest.

He says creating the Comprehensive Development Zone(CD Zone), allows the city to do more with the area than under the current C7 Zone.

"Conventional zoning doesn't allow us to collect anything for amenities in the way it's formed today. The proposed CD Zone contemplates up to $22 million coming back in amenities."

Those amenities says Gilchrest include public washrooms, a children's playground, daycare or public-use facility, public pier, streetscape construction, a public plaza and as many as 194 affordable housing units.
While Gilchrest outlined a history and reasoning behind the re-development plan, he told council a much more detailed presentation would be forthcoming at a public hearing.

Despite moving forward to the public hearing stage, several councillors had concerns over two main issues, establishment of a hotel on the current Royal Trust site which is now parkland and protection of heritage buildings in the four block area.

"I do not support a hotel on that piece of property. Actually, I would like to see the Royal Trust site rezoned to parkland, which is completely opposite of what has been proposed," says Councillor, Norm Letnick.

"Every time I am at Kerry Park and I look to my right if I'm facing the grandstand, I imagine a tall hotel and I just can't see it. I feel I'm insignificant when it comes to pedestrian size versus this tall building."
Letnick says he is comfortable to going to a public hearing with the rest of the re-development plan, however, would prefer to see more parkland as opposed to less in the proposal.

Gilchrist told council that, despite Letnick's assertion, there is actually a little more than an acre of additional parkland and open space with the new development proposal.
Councilor Andre Blanleil, on the other hand spoke out in favour of the hotel on the Royal Trust site.

"I'd like to hear our architects and designers with their knowledge of this industry explain at the public hearing why the hotel is a key part of this anchor. I personally think a hotel on this site would be spectacular for a major tourist city that we are," says Blanleil.

"I would hate to see council arbitrarily pull something out of the picture until we really get a chance to hear from the public and the professionals that are designing this whole layout."
On the issue of heritage protection, Councillor Robert Hobson, says he was concerned about the provision that only called for the protection of the facade on heritage buildings.

"The issue for me is do we protect just the facade or do we protect the entire building. I think cutting the building in two if we consider they really have heritage value is not the right thing to do," says Hobson.
"As I have said at earlier meetings, I have a real concern about the ability to retain the brick building on Bernard and Water streets. My preference is to retain all of the buildings in those two blocks which I do consider to be heritage."

Overall though, Hobson says he thinks the opportunities the development provides are exciting.

"I believe having a comprehensive development zone is going to be better for downtown than the zoning we have there today. I think one of the things it is going to be important to express visually at the public hearing is what we have learned over period of months, that the current zoning doesn't really provide the kind of downtown we want to see in that area."
He says people are concerned about larger buildings in the downtown, especially along the waterfront.

Councillor Michele Rule, had some questions about the exclusion of liquor primary establishments and temporary shelters within the proposed CD Zone. These include nightclubs and operations such as the Kelowna Gospel Mission.
"Those are uses that are allowable today under the C7 Zone and will continue to be allowed, unless a development application came forward and entered into the new CD21 Zone. Under new construction those uses would not be permitted," says Gilchrest.

He says the Gospel Mission indicated during earlier consultations they didn't need to be located where the clients typically sleep.

"My comfort level with that is not very high. I would be interested to hear from the public at the public hearing stage how they feel about that and how we are going to reconcile the need with what is being proposed here," says Rule.
In anticipation of large numbers wanting to be heard at the public hearing, the city is making a request form available on its website, www.kelowna.ca.