Family-size townhouses, apartment building recommended for Black Mountain by Kelowna planners

KELOWNA – A rezoning request for land off Highway 33 in Kelowna’s Black Mountain neighbourhood would see a single-family home replaced with sorely needed affordable housing, staff say.

Owned by the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society since 2004, the property at 1759 Highway 33 East would see a house built in 1989 torn down and developed to include a 35-unit apartment building with one- and two-bedroom units plus 14 townhouses with three or four bedrooms.

The affordable housing project, located next to Black Mountain Elementary School, would be managed by the society and lands in a category that planner and Trisa Atwood says is in “low supply” in Kelowna, units big enough to house families.

The property backs onto the future Gopher Creek Linear Park, an environmentally sensitive area which runs near Highway 33 and requires protection through restrictive covenants and the need for an environmental development permit, Atwood writes in her report to council.

Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society will also have to register a public statutory-right-of-way allowing public access to the future park.

The society may also apply to develop a childhood education and care centre, the report says, either now or in a future phase of the housing project.

Kelowna council will hold a public hearing on the request Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 6 p.m. in Kelowna City Hall 1435 Water St.

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