The Views would bring 100 rental homes in University South neighbourhood

Photo: Contributed

A Kelowna development company has plans to build two rental buildings close to UBC Okanagan, but it will need the City of Kelowna to approve several changes before that can happen.

Ridge North America has submitted four applications to the city for a project called The Views. It would consist of two buildings on the east side of the ridge that is part of the University South neighbourhood.

Since the land is currently zoned for parks and large lot rural housing, the architect associated with the project, Dialog, has submitted development permit, rezoning, development variance permit and official community plan amendment applications to city hall.

If ultimately approved, The Views will consist of 100 one- and two-bedroom rental homes in the two, five-storey, wood-frame buildings.

“As a large site within walking/cycling distance to the Harvey Avenue/Highway 97 corridor, trips to and from downtown may be served by transit for residents of The Views,” Dialog wrote in its application. “More notably, The Views is envisaged as providing significant amount of medium density residential rental housing for the UBCO community and students.

“This means more people living close to where they work or study and further reducing movement pressures on the broader city road network.”

The development would be located on the Lougheed Road extension and would need a second emergency access point, according to the application.