Photo: City of Kelowna

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran gave a developer a verbal dressing down before council agreed to send their application back for a second public hearing.

The second hearing for a proposal on Fraser Road was agreed to after staff informed council the developer failed to meet its policy regarding public notification and consultation prior to the initial public hearing.

Planner Jocelyn Black said the developer of the project provided staff with confirmation they had met the policy.

"Following the public hearing, discrepancies were identified, and through ongoing correspondence with the applicant, it was confirmed there were multiple errors in the confirmation they provided," said Black.

Several people who spoke against the project at the Feb. 2 public hearing indicated they had not been contacted by the developer.

Black says three properties on Josselyn Court were not on the list of those contacted, while it is unclear if four others had been contacted as there were errors with either street name or address.

"Is there any recourse to rap the knuckles of the applicant and say a better job should have been done? I guess we don't," asked Basran.

City clerk Stephen Fleming confirmed that, aside from just doing so verbally, there was no other recourse except to redo the public hearing.

Fleming added that the move was unusual, but, because it was brought up at the public hearing, and staff felt the policy had not been met, that council should be notified before approving the application.

Council agreed the application should go back to the public as a matter or process.

"If we don't send this back to public hearing, it will erode the public's confidence in the way systems operate on council," said Coun. Mohini Singh.

"As much as I absolutely don't want to put the public, or the applicant through another public hearing, I don't think we have a choice. This is basically about trust."

A new public hearing will be held at a later date.