The City of West Kelowna just voted on a new Official Community Plan (OCP) yesterday at their council meetings. This was a big step for the City of West Kelowna to shape the future growth of the area. My take on the OCP and the direction council went on it was from a housing affordability approach where the council is trying to help provide real estate supply to the City to support the growth of the city and the region.
Similar to Kelowna they took an approach on infill development, but the biggest changes will be the adoption of “high rise” towers. West Kelowna could now be getting buildings that are up to 19-storeys.
Not all neighbourhoods will be impacted as drastically as others but the main centre’s that will be impacted the most is the Boucherie Urban Centre and Westbank Urban Centre with the Westbank Urban Centre seeing the largest concentration on building height and future Commercial development happening on either side along Brown Rd.
For those that don’t want to spend hours and hours looking at documents the simplest way to see the impact of the OCP his by viewing the mapping system by clicking here. If you are looking for more information or details on a specific area you can view or access all your information here. If you are a nerd like me you can view the physical documents of the OCP here. With details on the Westbank Centre and Boucherie Centre buildings heights starting on page 38 of the PDF or page 28 at the bottom of the document but some highlights on these below.
Westbank Urban Centre- Allowing up to 19 Storeys
Boucherie Urban Centre- Up to 12 Storeys
As one that has been following this Official Community Plan for years it has been good to see it cross the finish line and give some structure and framework to the Cities planning department. If you do have any questions on it and how it impacts you please feel free to reach out. Also if you are looking for opportunities with the new OCP please reach out as we have been working on providing opportunities for developers and investors that align with the OCP. Have a great week! Mark and Maddie