loading...
By John McDonald
Kelowna city councillors heard a strong defense this morning of the CD-21 zone from both senior staff and one of the key architects involved in the detailed planning of the zone.
Director of real estate and building services Doug Gilchrist and architect Graham McGarva stressed to council that the hotel site — which currently enroaches on city park land – has already been determined as the best possible place for it.
“There was a lot of time and effort determining where that should go and what it should be,” said Gilchrist. “At the end of the day, a hotel can only be located where it is financially viable. It can’t just go anywhere and be successful and we’ve seen that with other sites in the city that have just languished.”
He pointed to the property across the street from Prospera Place, which is currently a pile of pre-load, but was at one point supposed to be a Westin hotel.
“The site actually had a carrier and they still couldn’t put the project together,” Gilchrist added.
Coun. Andre Blanleil, an outspoken proponent of the CD-21 zone as it stands, said he thinks some of his counterparts are asking for too much change to the plan.
“It’s clear that some of them want to change it completely and that will be the unravelling of the plan,” he said. “If we are simply dealing with a few areas that people have concerns on, that’s one thing, but if they want to do things like save the theatre, then let’s just stop it now and get it over with.”
Coun. Robert Hobson said he’s stuck in the middle. “I’m anxious that this plan proceed and we send positive economic signals about the redevelopment of downtown,” he said. “This is far better than the old C7 zoning and there’s lots of public benefit to dealing with it comprehensively.”
Still, Hobson said the hotel is a sticking point for him.
“It’s always been a matter of principle to me that we not be selling park land,” he said. “We’re going to get thousands more people living downtown in the next 20 years and they’re going to enjoy those public amenities, so we need them for the benefit of future population.”
During Monday’s session, Gilchrist listed all the initiatives that this and previous councils have tried in a failed attempt to stimulate redevelopment in the Lawrence/Leon area of downtown, including parking, streetscape and tax incentives, dumpster removal, and relocation of social services.
“The lack of any significant development in the area through the biggest growth period in this town’s history is, I think, all the evidence we need,” he said.
The CD-21 zone covers four city blocks or 17 acres downtown. The zone plan calls for nine sub-zones, which would include 12 highrise buildings and $22 million worth of public amenities.
Council recently rescinded second and third readings of the zone bylaw to let newly elected councillors ask questions and receive new information about the ambitious project.
The contentious comprehensive development plan has split residents down the middle, with some demanding it move ahead as is, while others call for it to be scrapped altogether.
Council will meet again April 26 for the next phase of the workshop.
john@kelowna.com
250-575-0521
13 Responses to “Architect and planner defend CD-21 zone as it stands during briefing for city councillors”
Tags: Andre Blanleil, cd-zone, doug gilchrist, John McDonald, park, Robert Hobson
loading...
Robert Hobson doesn’t want a hotel on the Kerry Park site but apart from that his vision of the downtown is for heights and densities similar to CD-21 throughout. I understand that at one time he was considered to be “progressive” but more recently there’s little difference between him and Andre Blanleil.
loading...
I sat through the entire meeting today and I came out of it ABSOLUTELY in support of the plan as it stands. What people do not seem to understand is that we cannot kowtow to a few special interest groups because they are unhappy with one aspect. It is ridiculous. The city has already gone through 21 iterations of a comprehensive plan for downtown balancing and ensuring the BEST POSSIBLE WAY for: environmental sustainability, low-income housing, preserving heritage, creating higher density, creating MORE green space (an entire acre) and economic sustainability (job creation). The plan even includes a DAYCARE and public multi-use facility! As for the hotel, the way it si situated and the way there will be MORE public access to green space and living space, we would be crazy to take it out of the plan. This is a boutique hotel for heaven’s sake – NOT some monstrosity or blight on our community. The other key point is that we will actually have people enjoying our downtown core YEAR-ROUND which is certainly NOT something we can say right now.
This will revitalize our languishing core and make it a place people want to be! If you care about Kelowna, I ask everyone to rise up and write to Council to say that you SUPPORT CD21 as it is!
loading...
Ms. Rustad has omitted to say that she has a vested interested in this project, which may cloud her support for CD21.
loading...
Indeed, Ms Rustad certainly has a vested interest in seeing this plan go without rational thought or changes.
Change just for the sake of change is not wise – or even sustainable.
Perhaps one of the reasons nothing worked in the Lawrence and Leon area is because the land owners were developers who are just sitting on the land waiting to maximize their investments.
Or maybe it was doomed to fail when Council beautified other parts of the downtown and left poor old Lawrence and Leon to flounder in the dirt and garbage.
I do not support the hotel on the lake and I think staff and Mr McGarva are painting a doom and gloom picture to council in hopes they can force it through. The concept that without the hotel in just that location the whole CD21 plan would be dead is just ludicrous. They have one developer, Milroy, who says he is ready to move ahead with his buildings – one being the hotel.
I also think too many people just have no concept of exactly what will happen down there. Maybe people should be doing their own homework and asking a whole lot more questions. Most people haven’t even figured out that we will lose the Paramount Theatre building as well as the one to the east of it where the dollar store is now. Most people haven’t figured out we would probably lose some, if not all, of the oldest buildings in the downtown core and destroy that part of Kelowna’s history forever.
Is that what you really want??? Are you ready to sell Kelowna’s soul to the out of town developers? I’m not.
There’s a lively discussion with lots of information here: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=23851
loading...
Can someone explain Nicole Rustad’s vested interest, please?
Also, are we really this concerned about losing the Paramount or the dollar store?? There are plenty of heritage buildings in the downtown core, and smart developers will taken advantage of this.
A city’s soul is based on the people which inhabit it, not the buildings. The infrastructure merely gives people the opportunities they need. Anyone who’s taken a walk through downtown in the last decade knows this city is in desperate need of a do-over.
This city has never been perfect and will never be perfect. It’s impossible to please everyone so let’s stop trying.
Kelowna’s days of being a small vacation town are long over. Kelowna is a growing city where the only place left to grow is up. This isn’t Calgary where you can just keep sprawling out into the suburbs. Look to the skies, my friends.
loading...
Honestly I agree with some of the things said here… But i have one serious question… Who cares about the Paramount Theater? Its a square building with 3 big rooms in it. There is nothing very attractive about it. If it is the theater itself as far as venue goes that your concerned about then okay lets stipulate a movie theater being built in the new cd-21.
loading...
I also wanted to quickly add that there was little to no uproar when the Uptown theater was shut down. And from my recollection a large amount of businesses tried their luck there… Hmm I seem to remember that almost all of those who had to rely on a steady income had failed. Do you want to preserve that too?
loading...
I wonder if the landmark is built to LEED gold standards
loading...
My vested interest is that I care about Kelowna. My husband is a lawyer and partner with one of the law firms downtown but I can assure you, he does not influence my opinion on matters that are close to my heart. I challenge anyone to discuss this with me personally and I find it offensive that some people believe that I would care more about money then the best interests of our community. I left a job where I earned well over $100,000 a year in the financial sector to work in a position earning less than half of what I did formerly because I am able to help the disadvantaged, charities and our community directly through my work.
I have volunteered tirelessly in this community and outside of this community for the past 20 years chairing the Terry Fox Run for 8 years, fundraising for the YM/YWCA, fundraising for Big Brothers and Sisters, being the founding President of the Okanagan Jaycees, volunteering in the soup kitchen downtown, spearheading drives for the Food Bank, spearheading stream clean-ups of Mill Creek, implementing a Green Plan at the business I work at (not in the downtown), sitting on charitable boards, co-chairing A Great Big Run for Africa for micro-financing for women who are disadvantaged, sitting on the planning committee and chairing events for Global Citizen Kelowna and frankly much more…I would like to ask the naysayers – what have you contributed to this community without pay and because you care??? Do you honestly believe I would be wasting my time on this issue because I want extra cash in my pockets or because my husband is influencing me? DISGUSTING!
loading...
And by the way, who are you people slamming me without posting your full name? Hmnn…could there be a special interest group behind this? At least I have the guts to post my opinions openly instead of hiding in anonymity!
loading...
Another point, the law firm my husband works for is NOT in the CD21 Zone…so please tell me how I or even my husband have a vested interest in this.
loading...
If the City would just move the Gospel Mission out of the downtown, the Lawrence/Leon Avenue area would be redeveloped in no time without the need for high-rises. Everyone knows that but the CD-21 is all about profits (for downtown landowners and merchants) not redevelopment.
loading...
Nicole Rustad and I are on opposite sides of the CD-21 debate, but there’s one thing I agree with her about and that is that people should have the backbone to use their full names when making critical comments about others. This is an area where I think Kelowna.com could improve upon the Castanet forum mentioned by a previous commentator.
Please continue discussion on the forum: link