Kelowna News

Just two weeks after nixing one downtown development, another was given the go ahead by Kelowna City Council.

Monday, council agreed to new standards for the Central Green project, a proposed 13 acre development on the former Kelowna Secondary School site at Richter and Harvey avenues.

Two weeks ago, a large redevelopment plan slated for the downtown core was pushed back to first reading by council.

In taking the next step in the development of Central Green, council relented to staff's recommendation that 15% of the estimated 700 apartment units be set aside as affordable and to achieve a LEED Certified standard.

It was the same presentation submitted by staff five months ago.

Council had wanted 20% of units set aside as affordable while achieving a LEED Gold Standard.

"The Central Green project will not be viable unless changes are made to this mandate. I know that's a pretty strong statement but that's one that, we have said before, and this is one that we do believe," says Strategic Land Development Manager, Derek Edstrom.

"As we said before, mandating LEED Gold and 20% affordable housing I believe will bring this land value to zero. Beyond this, there will be no monies available to fund park development or site preparation."

He says those would have to be funded on the backs of taxpayers as opposed to the development community.

The development area has been designed to include five acres of park with the development, broken out into seven separate complexes, on the remaining eight acres.

One of the seven development parcels would include 70 affordable housing units provided by BC Housing with the other 35 spread among the other six complexes.

"This is where the numbers start to fall apart for me because BC Housing, that's their job, that's what they do, build affordable housing," says Councillor Michele Rule.

"I think that should be a separate property and a separate project. That leaves us at 15% with only 35 units for the rest of the development and that seems really low. The developers are not baring the brunt of 105 units, they are only baring the brunt of 35."

Rule says she was willing to compromise on the LEED standards but was uncomfortable compromising on affordable housing.

"LEED, we will see it come up on its own because it's marketable. If we back down on the affordable housing side, nobody is going to pick up the slack."

Councillor Luke Stack countered that 20% of nothing is still nothing and, with the site empty, the city has nothing.

"At the end of the day I feel you are better to move ahead with what you can afford to do and make small steps forward, rather than wait for the mother lode," says Stack.

"I think a compromise from 20% to 15% is a reasonable compromise because I would sure like to see 105 affordable housing units on Central Green versus putting this on the shelf and leaving it with the potential of not seeing any."

Stack adds that with the market slow and many developments on hold and units un-sold, this is the perfect time to go through this exercise.

"We don't know when the market is going to pick up again but we certainly don't want to wait until the market gets hot and then try to catch the wave. The best time to do this long term planning is now when things are quiet."

The city has owned the former KSS site for eight year. An original Request for Proposal (RFP) was rejected a few years ago by the council of the day.

Mayor Sharon Shepherd says given the time that has lapsed, it's time to move ahead.

"I think we have to move ahead. It's going to take some time and I agree we should be moving ahead," says Shepherd.

"I am in support of the park being developed in some way. It might be a phased approach. The public have already seen the plan, they voted on it two or three years ago. I think that neighbourhood was anticipating that they would see something happen."

The proposal passed 8-1 with Councillor Charlie Hodge casting the lone dissenting vote.

Unlike Councillor Rule, Hodge was not willing to bend on the sustainability factor.

"I feel once again we have had a world class project and now we are lowering the bar. I think we could have looked at doing the Gold projects and I'm disappointed we are not," says Hodge.

"I don't have a problem necessarily with going from 20% to 15% affordable housing simply because we do have other affordable housing projects going on in the community. I thought we were making a mistake in lowering the bar on our expectations and we could have found a financial way to make it work."

Edstrom says staff is completing the new zoning requirements for the development parcel and hope to have it before council very soon.