The Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association (GBGPCA) provided a letter to our mayor, city councillors, and planning department as feedback to the latest draft of the Official Community Plan (OCP).
In chatting with city planners at the February 1st open house, we learned the owner of the property across from Willow Beach is currently in talks with them and that they anticipate a development application similar to the previous one will come before city council in the next couple months. The previous plan called for two ten story towers and one eight story tower. Therefore, we strongly encourage residents and neighbours of our community to submit feedback to the city at this crucial point, as the final draft of the OCP is completed. You can do so by:
– Going to the city site Plan West Kelowna! | Engage West Kelowna (ourwk.ca)
– Select complete the feedback form.
Please note that you need to hover the mouse just under the choice you want to select and a happy face will appear to click on. You are able to type a comment in the box below each topic choice. The greater the input the city receives regarding Neighbourhood Centres, the more likely our voices will be heard.
When you read the Draft Official Community Plan Document (adobe.com), you will see on pages 36, 37, 38 and 156, that wide discretion is given to the city to increase density (this includes height beyond six stories), as public parking will be considered an extraordinary public benefit at the Gellatly Bay Neighbourhood Centre.
*Please note you may need to press ctrl. and click on the link in our message above to open the links.
The GBGPCA letter to the City was as follows:
Over the past years the City of West Kelowna has embarked on a most worthy project to create a new Official Community Plan (OCP) to steer the direction of our City over the next 20 years. The award-winning Community Vision was a thorough process that created a valuable picture of what this should look like and the City has worked hard to create a viable blueprint for the future based on this. Overall, this work has been a huge success and we congratulate and thank you for this. Consolidating population growth in the urban centres, bringing the couplet back to one road, and creating Neighbourhood Centre hubs are all positive changes to facilitate population growth and access to goods and services.
The only item the Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association (GBGPCA) continues to be concerned about is the Gellatly Bay Neighbourhood Centre designation and plan. Ultimately, we can see the benefits that various existing neighbourhoods would receive by creating a hub – a Neighbourhood Centre – however, Gellatly Bay is a true anomaly in itself and unlike any of these other neighbourhoods. Lumping the jewel of West Kelowna in with this concept is a mistake and one we’d like to see you continue to question.
Gellatly Bay is an enormous contributor to the wellbeing of many people who live in West Kelowna. As our most public recreational corridor it is used daily throughout the year, in good and bad weather, by people near and far. In particular it is safe for families, seniors and women to access. However, in the summer it bursts at the seams – our residents know this, our City knows this and so does our tourist population. Any development in this area needs to be very carefully weighed to ensure we retain this irreplaceable recreational gem for the people of West Kelowna.
The Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association would like to see the following included in the current draft of the OCP:
Preservation of Gellatly Bay’s Recreational Corridor
- Access to recreation by the public should be the utmost priority for this Neighbourhood Centre with all other aspects, including development, being secondary.
- Construction processes (blasting and pile driving) throughout West Kelowna have caused damage to nearby structures with neither the City nor the developer taking responsibility. This is in addition to the years, (phase 1, 2, 3?) of detours, delays and disruption that will occur at the very heart of our recreational area as a result of construction on Gellatly Road (2 lanes) which is already very busy.
Removal of the Extraordinary Community Benefit Language (formally known as Additional Density
- This language MUST be removed as it lacks transparency and gives an overwhelming degree of discretion to the city. Allowing parking to drive our OCP and development of Gellatly Bay is simply wrong. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to leave a legacy of a great recreational area and beach and not a parkade. The proposed “public parking” will be overtaken by the residents, guests, and customers of the development, as we have seen around every other development in West Kelowna. In particular it does nothing to alleviate the boat trailer parking, which is the major source of our parking problem right now. We should not “PAVE PARADISE AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT”.
Remove Gellatly Bay from the Neighbourhood Centre designation
- The existing Gellatly Village Plan from 2017 should continue to follow for this area as it offers sensible development options that fit the landscape along with the amenities the public is looking for.
- Gellatly Bay cannot be all things to all people. It cannot be a residential area, business and entertainment hub, boat launch, yacht club, tourist centre, and parking lot, while fulfilling its primary function as the recreational core for the people of West Kelowna.
Gellatly Bay is not Peachland or Penticton with miles of lake access nor is it Kelowna with parkland and an extremely wide walking path between buildings and the lakefront. It is, however, what we have and love so please ensure our OCP helps us retain this crown jewel.
Sincerely,
Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association
gellatlybaycommunity@gmail.com | www.gellatlybaycommunity.com
Gellatly Bay Goats Peak Community Association 