'Promises were made': Rezone then sell strategy irks Peachland's mayor

Real estate listing irks mayor

Photo: Realtor.ca screenshot

Property owners who receive council’s approval for a rezoning application, then immediately put their land up for sale are starting to annoy Peachland’s mayor.

Patrick Van Minsel said that’s a topic council may need to discuss in the future, noting in a Tuesday morning council meeting that it happened again after a recent rezoning was approved.

“I’m a little bit disappointed,” Van Minsel said. “We’ve approved a lot of developments in our two years. A lot of promises were made by developers. What I’m seeing now more and more happening is once they get to third reading, they put it up for sale.

“We need to have a discussion how can we deal with this. A lot of our staff time is going into these projects, a lot of our time goes into discussing this. It’s time for us to look into this a little deeper.”

Van Minsel said a property that received rezoning two weeks ago is now for sale.

A property just listed on the realtor.ca website received third reading from council in November and is awaiting final approval.

In a 4-3 decision in November, council granted third reading to a rezoning application for two adjacent properties on Princess Street and Highway 97. The developer said the intention was to build a 52-unit townhome development.

The property is listed for sale at $6.75 million