Development poses danger

I am a resident of Treasure View Estates, a 20-dwelling, 55+ development above Crystal Springs, located at the end of a cul-de-sac in West Kelowna. 

Developers are planning to put in 97 townhouses on a smallish plot of land just above us, on the only road in or out of our community. To do this, they will have to connect to our storm sewer and sewage systems. This will mean digging parallel trenches down the middle of our access road, 400 and 500 feet respectively. In addition, they will need to dig four 500-foot trenches on their property to connect all the townhouses to the extensions in our road.  

This is problematic for two reasons. The first involves the rock bluff on the west side of our access road. It sheds rock regularly, such that a concrete retaining wall has been placed along the hill side of the road. One of our residents, who has 42 years experience in installing water and sewer pipes, says the jackhammering needed to cut through the solid rock beneath our road will bring down a lot more rock, potentially some very large chunks, which could crash into houses and vehicles.

The second is the need to scrape 15 feet or more from their property to get down to a solid foundation. Presently it is half-covered with that many feet of loose rock which cannot be built on. The act of scraping this area will result in rockslides which will, again, impact Crystal Springs residents and, possibly, some of our homes. So far, apparently, no core samples have been taken to assess the viability of preparing this site for development.

The previous owners attempted to develop the same parcel in 2002, but gave up after discovering the immense costs it would require and after having to pay damages to a Crystal Springs resident who had a large rock go through the wall of his house and narrowly miss a chair in which he could have been sitting.

This proposal is before council, but approval was deferred because a majority of councillors felt the plans were lacking several important points. However, that pales in importance when the impossibility of safely prepping the site is considered. This development should simply not be allowed to proceed.

We fear others in West Kelowna and, indeed, Kelowna, may not be fully assessed for safety before receiving the go ahead.

Lee Karvonen, West Kelowna