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Building massive, high-density structures on one of the busiest roads in the city will mean residents of those 168-unit, five-storey wood structures on the Corner of Cooper and Benvoulin will be required to wear earplugs should they ever want to sit on their balconies.
Higher densities are not the solution to the spiralling increases in the price for housing in B.C., and insisting on adding 20,000 more people to our population will only compound the problems facing the city, while it’s struggling with a severe lack of infrastructure without a clear path to finding the money.
Treating the Official Community Plan as a fluid document, by amending it to suit the whim of developers every time they apply for a zoning and development permit, the city’s long-term estimates for infrastructure development is complete fiction.
While subsidies at a glance seem attractive, they only exacerbate the issue, as they serve to further inflate the cost of housing, as prospective home buyers are perceived to be able to pay more for those homes.
Increasing densities will also result in radical changes to the laid-back, semi-rural lifestyle we have every right to, and already are paying dearly for.
Considering the average household in B.C. is about 2.5 people per housing unit, it is anticipated a total of about 420 people could be living in this tight cluster of buildings.
Using a generally accepted standard of 30 square metres of green space per resident, an additional 3.0 acres in addition to the existing 3.3 acres, will be required to provide an acceptable amount of green space for this development.
The buildings are also far too close together to provide residents with any element of privacy, and those skinny green strips wrapped around them do not qualify as play or recreational areas.
Like the Central Green development on the corner of Richter and Harvey, this is another high-density, big city development that is totally out of character with our beautiful city.
It’s also disturbing to see developers breaking ground on agricultural lands and installing temporary power supply while city council is still considering the application for rezoning that land.
Andy Thomsen, Kelowna
