Peachland development delays could grow with council plan

Photo: Colin Dacre

Peachland's Beach Avenue waterfront.

Wait times for planning and development permits in Peachland could get even longer if council pushes ahead with a proposal to limit Beach Avenue building heights to three-storeys.

Last month, the newly-elected council directed municipal staff to develop a timeline “for potential options” for new zoning options on Beach Avenue “specifically to limit building heights to three storeys.”

In a report going to council next week, planning and development staff say they are already up to their eyeballs with other applications and a large project like this would have cascading effects.

“The addition of a new project or priority for staff should be considered with respect to all the other ongoing projects and priorities as the addition of one has implications on others,” the staff report says.

“The department has been short staffed for several months and is dealing with an extensive backlog of instream development applications. The prioritization of staff time for this long-range/special project will cause additional delays to application processing timelines.”

Peachland’s planning and development department has spoken frankly about challenges they have been dealing with this year.

In an interview with Castanet in May, planning and development director Darin Schaal said his team is under-resourced for the pace of growth the community is experiencing.

Residents and developers are waiting up to a year for some basic applications.

The timeline for the Beach Avenue zoning changes going before council suggests the process could be completed next year if council moves ahead.