Thompson Rivers University looking to develop village

KAMLOOPS – Thompson Rivers University is moving forward with density planning.

The university trust is in talks with developers to move forward with the campus master plan, says vice president of finance Matt Milovick. At a townhall meeting with the university community last week rezoning and surveying plans were announced.

“The reasons we had the town hall was as a refresher to our community about the campus master plan,” Milovick says.

The university trust, an group independent of the university’s administration, is looking to market university land dedicated to commercial development, he says.

He says the university does not want to change the use of the land, but to increase the density allowed on the land parcels. The goal is to create a high density and active area around the school, much like a village.

“At McGill and Summit we see a lot commercial activity and high density housing,” he says. “Instead of it being equally scattered around.”

He says the goal of the trust is to market the land and create a new revenue stream for the university, which would go towards students and research.

The long term campus master plan is a long term idea, Milovick says, with the first shovel in the ground at least 18 months away and completion 15 to 30 years off.

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