In follow up to our association’s presentation at the April 2022’s Committee of the Whole Meeting we sought clarification and meetings with available City Council and Staff throughout July and August. A brief summary on each of these meetings is noted below and will be updated as additional meetings take place.
Mayor Milsom and Mr. Gipps (August 10, 2022) – Several members of our Board were able to meet with Mayor Milsom and the City’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. Gipps, at Willow Beach. We were able to connect regarding various requests the GBGPCA recently submitted to the City which included confirmation that:
- ‘No parking here to the corner’ signs will be installed along Gellatly Road including by Whitworth
- A 4-way stop will be investigated further at Gellatly and Gellatly South Roads (by The Cove)
- A crosswalk will be installed across Gellatly Road near Marina Park
- The City is examining how to manage the parking issues on Angus Road and have acknowledged this is a problem
- The City has a desire to improve the road around the curve on Gellatly Road South, however, it is challenging to accomplish due to ALR land restrictions. The City needs to be able to offer additional ALR land in other locations to take away ALR land, as opposed to just purchasing it.
The meeting continued into further discussion around the draft OCP and concerning “Additional density will be considered where proposals address community-wide challenges (e.g. affordable housing, child care, public parking, etc)” clause that has been added to Neighbourhood Centres. Our concerns around this language, Bill 26 and the perceived opportunity to have the City and Council bypass public feedback were expressed. The City will take this back and look at ways to potentially add more clarity to this language in the next draft and noted the new OCP would not likely be ready for the next round of public feedback until the Winter as priorities will now be placed on the upcoming election. Our conversation included concerns around the hi-rise development application and various development plans for our Waterfront which were met with hesitancy in the discussion as the application of note (at the current boat storage) has not yet made it to the Mayor and Council. Both Mr. Gipps and the Mayor noted our concerns around parking, short term rentals and ensuring access to our beautiful Waterfront is still made available to our local residents during the high season (May to September). The GBGPCA reminded them of the 2017 Gellatly Village Plan (bylaw 0100.45) and reiterated our interest to continue with adoption of this for the Gellatly Bay Neighourhood Centre.
Councillor Zanon (August 25, 2022) – Three of the GBGPCA Executives had the opportunity to meet with Councillor Zanon in which we were able to share our general concerns regarding pedestrian and bike access to the lakefront from the Canyon Ridge area, parking, the need for fine tuning parking signage in the area for safety reasons, the upcoming OCP, and potential development across from Willow Beach. Overall, we had a lengthy visit, and enjoyed listening to her experiences regarding many aspects of the City’s change over the years. Councillor Zanon certainly displayed a thorough knowledge of how our City has evolved, has a balanced view, a wealth of life experience, and is committed to the good of West Kelowna.
Councillor Friesen (August 2, 2022) – A number of our Board of Directors were able to meet with Councillor Friesen during the evening hours at Willow Beach. Key takeaways from this meeting included acknowledgement of our concerns with the proposed OCP (former asterisk) clause especially in light of Bill 26. Councillor Friesen was noncommittal on either the offending clause in the OCP or what scale of development he would approve on the boat yard. He did however note that one of the top concerns he has is ensuring that there is attainable housing available in West Kelowna so that as children grow up, they will be able to work and live here. Councillor Friesen supports additional stories in places such as Goats Peak and other Neighbourhood Centres given they offer concessions to the community (e.g. a daycare, a portion of below market rents, seniors housing, etc.). He feels that we are a community that relies on tourism and that there has to be a balance of the overall economy versus resources and that we need to consider what a developer will bring to a community. The challenges Jason sees for our community are parking, traffic, and road alignment. He also acknowledged the additional challenges that would come with building across from Willow Beach such as shadowing our nicest sand beach, impeding pedestrian safety (e.g. how will beachgoers safely access commercial businesses on the other side of the road), exasperating current roads and traffic, and lack of parking for residents AND their guests. Overall Jason explained that, “we are not here to support building so a Developer can make money.” In certain areas such as downtown, but not everywhere, you need to give and take a little bit. As a Councillor Jason wants to serve and support all aspects of the community and looks forward to the opportunity to continue onward with Council in the upcoming Fall election.
Councillor de Jong (July 27, 2022) – This productive discussion included several members from our Board and took place at the Gellatly Heritage Park. Throughout our discussion it became apparent that City Council and the Planning department’s support for taller buildings may be more than anticipated and appear to be taking the developers’ Return on Investment (ROI) into consideration as a main driver. The ROI for a developer should not be a consideration Council, the City nor our residents be concerned with. As stated by Councillor de Jong, “We are elected to be responsible to the public.” This is paramount. A recent presentation to Council noted that based on the pace of the past two years West Kelowna will easily meet the housing needs of the next 20 years. He intends to run for Council this Fall and has noted policing and firehalls will be an item of interest in his campaign. He has encouraged us to be involved in the upcoming election as this will be an important one from a development perspective and encourages us to continue our work advocating for the OCP changes.
City of West Kelowna and Related Community Associations (July 7, 2022) – The City helped coordinate an evening meeting across relevant stakeholders with a goal of improved communication across our areas. Mr. Paul Gipps (CAO) has encouraged each association to contact him directly for assistance with any neighbourhood concerns. He also noted the availability of funding to assist with our AGM and related Directors liability insurance. Overall the meeting included discussion on challenges affecting each of our neighbourhoods such as egress, policing, dredging, road closures, a new webpage, potential plans for the Highway vs Main Street vs Dobbin Road, tax base (currently 89.1% is from residential properties) and future commercial tax base opportunities and the role that our associations can play in helping lobby for improved urgent care services.
Councillors Zilkie and Johnston (July 5, 2022) – We met with both Councillors together at Willow Beach for this discussion. Overall the two Councillors confirmed that density is needed in certain areas of the City and that the residents need to be receiving additional community benefits with this building. They noted that the desire to not need public hearings in conjunction with bill 26 (and a proposal meeting the upcoming OCP) is for cookie cutter projects and that rather than remove the offending clause from the OCP, they stated that they would be in favour of a public hearing for any development across from Willow Beach regardless of what the OCP says. When discussing the current building concerns around the Carbury development (Goats Peak) the two acknowledged the the concerns and have recommended we express our views to staff and individual members of Council. They’ve also encouraged the GBGPCA to submit the positives that we would like to see in our community and to advocate to School District 23 for more schools in West Kelowna.
Councillor Findlater (July 4, 2022) – Highlights from this pleasant discussion included that buildings across from Willow Beach that are of a maximum 2 to 3 stories with commercial on main and residential above would add to the area. He confirmed that 10 story buildings should be in downtown Westbank, not along the water and is a proponent that anything of the magnitude proposed across from Willow Beach would require public process. He did note that the density we see at Carbury (Goats Peak) is likely to continue to happen in order to create affordable housing as people are purchasing (the current phases are sold out). He encourages us to continue to push for a parking solution for boaters in the area and request additional crosswalks on Gellatly Road. He also confirmed that the sewage pump truck often seen on Gellatly is hired by the Regional District for servicing the trunk line that extends through Casa Loma, Lakeview Heights, and Rose Valley. A chemical is utilized to reduce the odor and that the sewage treatment plant currently has plenty of capacity.
Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association 