Photo: City of West Kelowna

Development plan caused council to pause adoption of new zoning bylaw

In an unusual turn of events, West Kelowna council has deferred adoption of its new zoning bylaw at the 11th hour.

The bylaw, which dictates what can be built in what zone, had already navigated through first three readings and a public hearing before adoption was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Deferral of the zoning bylaw also forced deferral of two other agenda items, including a proposed six-storey development at 911 Anders Road in Lakeview Heights, the linchpin for council's concerns.

Coun. Rick de Jong, who apologized for missing the previous meeting where the bylaw was considered, led the charge with a laundry list of issues, not the least of which was high-rise development on narrow lots.

“As part of that discussion (on height), we as a council talked about wanting to see land assemblies in those areas that were identified for higher buildings,” de Jong stated.

“(Anders Road) to me is an example of what we don't want to see, narrow high rise structures on minimal lot sizes. That was not the vision of council that I heard.

“I heard a vision where we had land assemblies take place and that would then provide larger footprints to allow for these six storey buildings.”

De Jong acknowledged he didn’t fully comprehend the end result of that portion of the bylaw until he saw what was being proposed on Anders Road, a tall, very narrow building.

“That’s not the vision.”

Sometimes, you miss things, added Coun. Stephen Johnston, who suggested a formula be included within the bylaw marrying together height and frontage.

“Maybe that’s saying in order to do six storeys in a neighbourhood centre, you would need to have 140 feet of frontage which is going to naturally encourage land assembly,” said Johnston.

“Given that most of our lots are 60 feet wide, that is going to push you into three lots. Otherwise, it’s just goofy.”

Coun. Tasha Da Silva agreed, saying the city’s Official Community Plan suggests a very sensitive transition which this does not seem to provide.

Director of development services Brent Magnan did say that portion of the bylaw was based on other sites in the city that developed six storeys on properties even narrower than the Anders Road site.

“We thought they were very sensitively integrated into the area. It was very well intentioned,” said Magnan.

Mayor Gord Milsom was surprised at the pushback, at one point asking de Jong if you feel so strongly about it, “I’m surprised you waited until the day of adoption and didn’t bring it forward at a prior meeting.

“This takes me by surprise. It’s news to me,” said the mayor who did entertain a motion of deferral.

The motion passed unanimously.

Staff will return with recommended changes at a future meeting.

Adoption of an amended bylaw could adversely affect the development proposed for Anders Road.