Development breaks ground

A new housing development officially broke ground in Vernon on Tuesday.

The Highlands of East Hill is a 20-acre residential community at 901 39 Ave. which will be built on the old McMechan Reservoir — the site of an open-air water reservoir that was decommissioned in 2006.  

"We have thought outside the box to take an old reservoir, add a whole lot of creativity and bring a one-of-a-kind project to the Okanagan," said Graham Illingworth, CEO of Stoni Consolidated. "We've been just over a year in the planning stage, again because it is so creative we wanted to enhance a couple of things."

The 174-lot subdivision has homes available from the mid $300,000 range to the mid $500,000 range.

"There is about twice as much green space as required and a lot of trails," Illingworth said.  

Many of the homes have been sold to seniors, young families and first-time home buyers.

"There is actually no one group as a runaway demographic within the project," Illingworth said.

Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming is excited about the new housing development and he is hoping to see more communities like this one in the future.

"It's one of those great housing projects that's in that range we need," said Vernon Mayor, Victor Cumming." We need much more supply or houses in that lower price range and it will suddenly bring a bunch of them on."

"It's a mix, there is a lot of people who would like to have this kind of thing, who are downsizing from something larger or a young family starting up."

"This will meet that mid-market that Vernon has been short of."

Construction will begin in March 2019.