Can Kelowna's infrastructure keep up with its rapid growth?

Photo: Contributed

Waterscapes 2 is one of several large developments planned for downtown Kelowna.

Kelowna's landscape is forever being altered with as many as 20 large towers on the books for downtown alone. Whether that's a positive or not depends on your point of view. Over the next few days, Wayne Moore looks at where the city is going and how it got here. Part one is here.

Infrastructure is often a bone of contention with residents any time a large development is planned for their area.

Typically, those concerns centre around traffic and parking, but amenities such as parks, and the delivery of services such as water and wastewater.

Infrastructure and service delivery is not lost on city hall, which maps out infrastructure needs into its Official Community Plan relative to growth expected in each area of the city.

With well over 4,500 residential units either in the early pre-approval stage or already under construction within the downtown area alone, those issues are on the radar at city hall.

"What we do is track of how many units are in the approval process, how many are approved, how many are in building permit, then look ahead," city director of planning Ryan Smith told Castanet News.

"We know how many (infrastructure) projects we are expecting to do in this area, and do we need to advance those, and how do we advance those?"

"We don't have any infrastructure constraints that are deal breakers right now, like if we get to unit 3,000 we have to stop."

Over the next six to 10 years, as many as 20 towers of 20 storeys or more are on the books for the downtown area, totalling a little more than 4,500 housing units. Those numbers do not include smaller level projects or the planned build out of the Tolko mill site or the north end in general.

And, while not every project in the planning or pre-planning stages will come to fruition for a variety of reasons, Smith says they are watching development closely and "know what we need to do before a lot of these units start materializing."

The newly adopted Official Community Plan envisions growth across the city through to 2040, and that plan anticipates 4,000 to 5,000 residential units within the downtown area.

"If we are close to that build out, what does that mean for the overall OCP growth strategy?" asked Smith.

"We may have to spend a bit more time [in five years updating that], and looking at some of the hard infrastructure in the ground, the sewer and water.

"But again, we don't have any immediate concerns in those areas."

With thousands expected to migrate toward the downtown area in the coming years, its residents who already live in the downtown area who are raising the red flags, specifically when it comes to traffic and transportation.

On top of what is already on the books, you can add several thousand more to what is expected to be a large build out on the former Tolko site.

Smith says his department is already looking at what those impacts might be and, when it comes to Tolko specifically, what can be built into that to reduce traffic generated from the development.

With the road network set for the most part, Smith says they will have to look at other ways.

"It's going to be a combination of solutions," said Smith.

"There is not going to just be widen this road or that road. It might be a bit of widening combined with a little bit of transit service improvement combined with a good mixed-use development that is close to grocery and pharmacy and that type of thing.

"So, you won't need your car in the evening when you need to go out and grab a couple of things."

He also believes the city may be more aggressive when it when it comes to pushing for a grocery tenant in the northern portion of the downtown area.

It's that type of service that residents of the north end have suggested is lacking from a survey in conjunction with a reimagining of that area of the city.

But when it comes to transportation, Smith says attracting the right type of person is just as important. And, the growth of millennials choosing a downtown lifestyle he says, is huge.

"The people choosing to live in these central areas are people who are less reliant on automobiles.

"I'm not saying its possible to ween ourselves off the automobile altogether...but if they are a demographic that uses them less, I think other people will choose to use them less."