Downtown Megaproject At APC

The city's advisory planning commission (APC) sits down tonight at 7 pm to look at a proposal that would drastically change Kelowna's waterfront. It’s called Pandosy Landing.

APC is a forum for citizen input into the planning process. The volunteer Commission consists of nine citizens who make non-binding recommendations to Council on community and neighborhood plans, zoning applications and development permits.

Edmonton based Westcorp Inc. is proposing to build a 16-storey hotel, three condominium towers, a public pier, a full service marina and a parkade all at the foot of Bernard Avenue. One of the condominium towers is proposed to be at least 28 storeys tall, making it the city’s tallest building.

To make the development happen, the company would have to acquire some buildings including the Willow Inn. Owner Ken Noble says he has tentatively sold it to Westcorp. Westcorp would also have to acquire Kerry Park and the Queensway boat launch which are owned by the city.

Since the announcement last week some concerns have been raised about the project, mainly that the buildings proposed are too tall for our water front, blocking view corridors and potentially preventing development of adjacent properties which would have to build at least as high to see over the tall buildings. Some cities choose to have building heights stagger back from the water front.