by Wayne Moore - Story: 50873 CASTANET Nov 17, 2009 / 5:00 am
Kelowna City Council has approved a new set of hillside development guidelines designed to cut down on red tape and improve the dialogue between developers and city planners. The guidelines were brought forward by Subdivision Approving Officer Ryan Smith Monday as a result of an audit done a number of years ago which indicated the hillside development guidelines be reviewed and changes recommended. "Since the early 2000's when Kelowna experienced one of the biggest development booms in our history, I think many of us have questioned the large cuts and scars in the hillsides, retaining walls, fill slopes and erosion that have all been spin-offs of the pace of development in the hillsides," says Smith. "The policy document you have in front of you is the vision and guidelines that will guide a variety of process and bylaw changes."
The consultant who worked on the report says there was never any clear expectation to the developer and their consultant as to what the city wanted. We feel this goes a long way in providing clarity to the developer and their consultants as to how do you do a geo-technical report," says consultant Bob Tordoff. "We have also provided a specific way of how to present all professional reports. All professional reports should have a certain standard. They should all be signed off and sealed by an appropriate professional so you don't have an engineer doing planning and biologists doing landscaping and so on." Smith says the approach is unique and just as the city was a leader with the original set of hillside guidelines, it will be with this as well.
He does caution though that chances will not all occur at once. "With the bylaw changes, the Official Community Plan will probably be the last document to come into place to support this document next year. That's really the umbrella that ties all of this together."
In supporting the recommendations, Councillor Robert Hobson says hillside developments need to start with a vision and clearly they didn't have one in the past. "We have approved thousands of units to occur on the hillsides so they are going to occur there, the question is how to do it in a way that maintains the hillsides as something beautiful and iconic," says Hobson. "I am hopeful that this approach which is a more cohesive approach will achieve that and we will see more respect for the natural environment that is there today and build into it rather than trying to change the natural environment to be an easy and accessible piece of flatland." While Councillor Charlie Hodge called some developments shameful, colleague Andre Blanleil took a more tempered approach. "I think there are some good examples. Some people are throwing out some insults here, but I think Dilworth is a good example of hillside development that does, after it's grown in, look very, very good," says Blanleil. "I am glad that the development community is on side. There's nothing more frustrating as when there is not a clear direction. If we are all on the same page and understand the process we will see a lot less flaws which has been part of the problem." Blanleil says getting all departments together as one focused program will make the process better for everybody. Council endorsed the recommendations as proposed.
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Item 5.1 - City of Kelowna Hillside Development Guidelines.pdf (32781kb) (2009-11-12)
The consultant who worked on the report says there was never any clear expectation to the developer and their consultant as to what the city wanted. We feel this goes a long way in providing clarity to the developer and their consultants as to how do you do a geo-technical report," says consultant Bob Tordoff. "We have also provided a specific way of how to present all professional reports. All professional reports should have a certain standard. They should all be signed off and sealed by an appropriate professional so you don't have an engineer doing planning and biologists doing landscaping and so on." Smith says the approach is unique and just as the city was a leader with the original set of hillside guidelines, it will be with this as well.
He does caution though that chances will not all occur at once. "With the bylaw changes, the Official Community Plan will probably be the last document to come into place to support this document next year. That's really the umbrella that ties all of this together."
In supporting the recommendations, Councillor Robert Hobson says hillside developments need to start with a vision and clearly they didn't have one in the past. "We have approved thousands of units to occur on the hillsides so they are going to occur there, the question is how to do it in a way that maintains the hillsides as something beautiful and iconic," says Hobson. "I am hopeful that this approach which is a more cohesive approach will achieve that and we will see more respect for the natural environment that is there today and build into it rather than trying to change the natural environment to be an easy and accessible piece of flatland." While Councillor Charlie Hodge called some developments shameful, colleague Andre Blanleil took a more tempered approach. "I think there are some good examples. Some people are throwing out some insults here, but I think Dilworth is a good example of hillside development that does, after it's grown in, look very, very good," says Blanleil. "I am glad that the development community is on side. There's nothing more frustrating as when there is not a clear direction. If we are all on the same page and understand the process we will see a lot less flaws which has been part of the problem." Blanleil says getting all departments together as one focused program will make the process better for everybody. Council endorsed the recommendations as proposed.
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Item 5.1 - City of Kelowna Hillside Development Guidelines.pdf (32781kb) (2009-11-12) 
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