Posts tagged Community Planning

KelRe

The North End is the Yaletown of Kelowna? PC Urban Says So

Is this a hopeful sign for creative spaces, or a glitzy end run around gentrification straight to sell out

  | By Jason Stewart

Kelowna real estate agent Steve Laursen has partnered with Vancouver’s PC Urban to sell the commercial flex and office units being built along the Clement Ave. corridor between Ethel and Richter, and a press release recently went out to the media praising the development’s virtues. Laursen’s main marketing pitch:

“We are offering a rare opportunity for local businesses to purchase high-end, funky, office and retail strata space in the Yaletown of Kelowna”.

PC Urban’s CEO, Brent Sawchyn is on board with Laursen’s Yaletown comparison. “It’s not quite in the core of the town per se. It’s very similar to what you see here in Vancouver, in Gastown and Yaletown. They’re just some unique older places that provide a different awareness and a different vibe for …

 
Community Planning

A First Look at How the City Plans to Regulate Airbnb in Kelowna

We are encouraged that the issue of short term rentals is being taken fairly seriously now

  | By Hello Kelowna Staff

Last week, the City of Kelowna’s Community Planning office released its proposed short term rental regulations to stakeholders for consultation. These stakeholders include tourism industry representatives like the Kelowna Motel Hotel Association, Tourism Kelowna, neighbourhood associations, strata councils, short term rental platforms, Landlord BC, Renters United Kelowna, and the Healthy Housing Advisory Committee. These organizations have until the end of the month to submit their …

 
Community Planning

New Short Term Rental Regulations in Kelowna: How Much Living Will Kelowna's "Liveable Downtown" Have?

Is the city potentially tearing a big hole in their comprehensive plan?

  | By Chantal Weill

The City of Kelowna’s been pretty woke lately. With their commitment to take a determined and holistic approach to homelessness, and now with their endorsement of a Healthy Housing Strategy that understands our woefully underserved housing needs (be they affordability or vacancy) all across the spectrum1, you’d think their newly adopted principles guiding their approach to increase long term rentals by …

 
Community Planning

If Floods Are a Constant – Are Temporary Measures Enough?

Tons of public money is spent every year to keep rising water away from mostly private property

  | By Al Janusas

Okanagan Lake and all of its creeks and streams have always flooded. Dams have been built but water levels continue to dramatically rise and fall. That fluctuation is natural and is not a problem. The very expensive problem for us all is that, in the recent past, houses and other structures were foolishly built on known flood plains. …

 
Community Planning

Guys, Did You Hear? There's a Rental Market Boom!

City of Kelowna revealed that we have 1,479 rental units under construction

  | By Chantal Weill

The talk of purpose-built rentals and rental zonings has really entered the BC housing discussion of late. While some conservative voices over at a recent UDI panel warned of impending slums, many pragmatic types are getting projects off the ground to fill real market demand for regular Joes and Joannes who can’t get anywhere near the almost seven figure price tag (and almost so in Kelowna). …

 
KelRe

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly in Condo World

Promises, promises... where will the Westcorp Hotel/Piggy bank end up?

  | By Jason Stewart

We certainly had an interesting juxtaposition of developer news this week – on one hand, the team behind the new Glenmore Central condo proposal in North Kelowna markets their complex as a practical and affordable option exclusively to Kelowna residents, and on the other, Edmonton-based Westcorp announces that their 33 storey mixed use residences/hotel by the lake would be …

 
Community Planning

The Towne Centre Mall Set to Become "The District"

Renovation plans for the Towne Centre Mall on Bernard

  | By Jason Stewart

On Monday, city council approved the renovation plans for the Towne Centre Mall on Bernard. The mall will also feature a new name, “The District” once the renovations are completed. Early last year the mall was sold to undisclosed buyers with Colliers International facilitating the …

 
Community Planning

The New Tourism Centre Broke Ground – Why Do Some People Still Have a Problem With It?

The Visitor Centre will be taking advantage of some sweet real estate

  | By Hello Kelowna Staff

Tourism Kelowna recently broke ground on their new location by Kerry Park, and the centre will open in early summer 2018 if everything goes as planned. We’re generally pleased with the direction of this initiative, but we’ve noticed that this topic rarely passes mention without the tag “controversial” applied to it. So we decided to explore the information that’s out there for the average citizen like us and see what the hubbub was about. We found that there have been some missteps, detractors and speculations along the path to …

 
Community Planning

Have You Seen the Latest Proposal for Capri Mall?

It's quite the proposed transformation

  | By Jason Stewart

A couple of weeks ago, the final public forum for the year discussing the future plans and complete makeover of the Capri-Landmark Centre, hosted by the City of Kelowna took place at Coast Capri Hotel. The event was well attended and many people came away liking what they saw. If you weren’t in attendance, you may have missed seeing one of the initial plans proposed by a private developer specifically for the …

 
Community Planning

Imagine This: Downtown Kelowna has a New Movie Theatre

We're playing Fantasy Developer

  | By Jason Stewart

New theatre brings the movies back to downtown Kelowna!” Sounds cool sure, but would it really work? Well, the answer is we don’t know, and we don’t have the financial resources, but we’re proposing it anyway. As the romantic William Blake said: “everything real was once imagined,” or as the kids are saying, ERWOI (just kidding, they’re not saying that), and that’s exactly what this new section is here for – a place to imagineer Kelowna! So instead of whining about the city’s offerings (hey we’re certainly guilty of that), we’re gonna play Fantasy Developer and …