The week of December 7, 2020 the Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association sent a letter to our Mayor, Council, Planning Department and Visioning Consultant in response to their feedback request on the 20-year Draft Community Vision document for West Kelowna. We understand the completion of the City’s Choose your Own Adventure surveys have been slow to come in so in an effort to ensure the opinions and concerns from our neighbourhood are heard a letter has been prepared and submitted. Please find a copy of the letter sent below along with the revised language we have proposed for pages 27 and 29.
Attention: City of West Kelowna Mayor and Council, City of West Kelowna Planning Department, City of West Kelowna Chief Administrative Officer, and Visioning Consultant
RE: Feedback on the 20-year Draft Community Vision document from the Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association
Dear All Stakeholders,
We wish to thank you for the opportunity to participate in the West Kelowna visioning process and in that regard, are submitting the following comments on behalf of the Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association. We truly appreciate the work that has gone into the current draft vision and support the vast majority of it. In this letter we are commenting on the area for which we are recommending change.
In particular we are concerned about the language used on page 27, “A Connected, Accessible and Vibrant Waterfront,” and on page 29, “Signs of Success.” The current draft focuses on access to food or shops for the Gellatly Bay area as the primary concern. We believe very strongly that this does not accurately represent the views expressed by the citizens of West Kelowna in the recent visioning survey and in the 2017 Amended Official Community Plan for Gellatly Bay.
At the October 13, 2020 council meeting our visioning consultant, Jana Zelenski, in response to a question from councillor Rick de Jong, indicated that the language used in the draft version would be driven in large part by the community input obtained through the survey. The survey had a very high response rate of 3.9% and was in fact the highest ever response rate to a survey conducted in West Kelowna. It was noted that respondents represented a broad cross section of our population in terms of age, location and length of residency, thus supporting its validity and accuracy. Several members of our association reviewed the entire survey, including all the appendices and kept tally of the citizens’ replies.
Our review indicated that less than 20 respondents mentioned obtaining amenities such as restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops in Gellatly Bay, (and of these many clarified that these should be small and casual). The overwhelming majority, well over 100, indicated their concern for maintaining green spaces, beaches, increased recreational opportunities and lake access. The current draft version emphasizing obtaining services is clearly inaccurate and therefore must be amended.
In that regard, please find attached to this letter revised language that may more accurately reflect the vision of the residents of West Kelowna for your review and consideration.
It is also very relevant that on September 5, 2017, West Kelowna City Council “unanimously” passed the current governing Official Community Plan for Gellatly Bay. This OCP was arrived at after several years of extensive consultation, surveys, public meetings and council meetings, and envisioned a small scale, low density development. The time, effort and thought that went into the 2017 OCP is still applicable today in determining our vision. Making access to food or shops for Gellatly Bay as the key challenge, could be misconstrued as a catalyst for justifying any type and scale of development over the preservation of our major recreational area as the key challenge.
Gellatly Bay cannot be all things to West Kelowna. It cannot be our lakefront, beach, walkway and boat launch as well as our downtown (highrises), our meeting area for culture, restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops. In such a narrow space it is simply impossible. We are not blessed with the flat area and topography of Peachland nor Penticton which have been mentioned as models. As the survey has clearly indicated, our citizens want Gellatly Bay to be the best lakeside recreational corridor it can, particularly as the city is limited in such features in the first place.
Communities that preserve some prime land for recreation are recognized as very desirable places to live. When we think of Stanley Park, Edmonton’s river valley, Central Park, Frankfurt’s river walk, Hyde Park, and so many more places, we see cities that looked forward and hung on to very special places that have only become more and more an essential part of quality of life in their cities.
As our city grows, the greatest challenge for West Kelowna is to preserve the limited space we have along the lake for recreation for generations to come. The highest and best use of Gellatly Bay is to create an accessible and vibrant destination for the people of West Kelowna to relax, to enjoy the beach, walking, paddling, and boating, with room for all in the future. It definitely needs to become more accessible on foot and on bike, yet people also need to be able to transport items they need to enjoy a day at the beach or on the water.
We could think outside of the box and create an amazing park with grass, trees and picnic spaces across from Willow Beach. Utilities and spaces could be built in to provide opportunities for small businesses to set up food trucks, a coffee kiosk, or markets, at times of the year when there is enough demand to support them. Or, there could be a very small-scale development with meandering sidewalks and areas of vegetation that compliment the beach and walkways. The very worst outcome would be to build large concrete structures in order to have a few small restaurants, pubs or shops and forever change the ambiance of the jewel of our area, Gellatly Bay.
We once again thank you for the opportunity to participate in this vision. The greatest legacy this council can leave all citizens of West Kelowna, is the preservation of and enhancement of Gellatly Bay to provide quality of life for generations to come.
Yours Sincerely,
Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association
Attachments to the letter include:
Page 27
The key challenges for West Kelowna’s Gellatly Bay are the preservation and enhancement of our very limited lakefront recreation area, and its lack of connectivity to other parts of the community, thereby necessitating the use of vehicles. Participants envision a vibrant recreational area along the lake, with beach, picnic and play areas, walking and biking paths, and differentiated areas for boating and paddling, to accommodate the needs of our growing city. Any further development is small scale, with low density commercial and residential components that compliment both the area’s primary recreational and agricultural focus, as well as existing adjacent neighbourhoods. While recognizing the necessity for the use of vehicles, effort must also be made to increase access by trails and bike paths.
WHAT WE SEE IN 2040
- A continuous active transportation linkage from Bennett Bridge to Peachland.
- The Gellatly Waterfront is a premier recreational area with the capacity to meet the needs of the residents of West Kelowna.
- Ongoing efforts to increase and improve access to West Kelowna’s lakes and waterfront areas.
- Strong multi-modal transportation connections to the water from Westbank Centre and other parts of West Kelowna.
Page 29
Signs of Success
- A preserved and enhanced recreational area on Gellatly Bay providing picnic spots, a protected paddling corridor and safe bike route.
- A small scale commercial and residential component that compliments the primary recreational function Gellatly Bay provides to our citizens, while respecting adjacent neighbourhoods.
- Improved accommodation for vehicles with boat trailers accessing the boat launch.
Note *delete more services at Gellatly Bay
Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association 