 | Friday, January 22, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Kelowna’s tall condo tower avoids political setbacks | | |  | | | The United States has a new president, the Governor General has resigned, and British Columbians await news Friday morning about their vaccine schedule.
But today, let’s talk about really tall buildings.
Really tall buildings are pretty much entirely within municipal government jurisdiction and, right now, are the centre of attention in Kelowna.
Last week, city council approved the development permit for a 42-storey condo in the heart of downtown, right next to the bridge linking Kelowna and West Kelowna. It would become the tallest in Kelowna — and the tallest in B.C. outside the Lower Mainland — and two other towers of 30 and 24 storeys were also approved.
“It’s a once in a generation opportunity,” said Anthony Beyrouti, the founder of the development company behind the project, to CBC News last week.
Really tall buildings have a way of becoming a political flashpoint: their proposal gets in the media, they create conversations about what a city wants to be — what the tall building replaces can become a point of contention in itself.
In Kelowna, it was no different, with the project framed as revitalizing an underdeveloped part of downtown that has been home to homeless camps in the past year.
“The people who go to work downtown every day deserve a chance to enjoy themselves,” said Beyrouti.
“What we think this can do is bring 650 families into this area and totally energize this entire thing and make it the epicentre of the downtown core.”
Perhaps.
But a city’s mood for or against really tall buildings — particularly of the market condo variety — can be fickle. While they are getting approved at rapid speed in Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam, opposition to them in White Rock, Port Moody and North Vancouver District was partly responsible for the turnover of governments in 2018.
Vancouver politicians have been reticent to embrace any proposals for buildings that would exceed the current tallest in the province, the 201-metre Shangri-La, even though Burnaby is on track to eclipse that in Metrotown this decade.
So these sorts of debates are always worth keeping an eye on.
And Kelowna will have another soon — the same week council approved the 42-storey building, a new application to the city was submitted for a building.
This one is 46 storeys. |  | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | After a month off, B.C.’s largest city council approved four rezonings that add up to more than 500 new units of housing, around 60 per cent of which are rental. Council also took a step forward in creating an integrity office and code of conduct, while slightly increasing the requirements to run for office, in hopes of maybe reducing the names on the ballot from the 158 seen last municipal election.
Read more in the Vancouver Sun | | | | |  | | | 2. Vacationers | You would think by late January everyone who travelled over the holidays would be known, but a Dawson Creek councillor who went to Mexico was just added to the list. Meanwhile, the Metchosin counclilor who went to Mexico as a “business decision” has stepped down as deputy mayor, and the mayor swore at a reporter.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Revelstoke | Coun. Cody Younker has taken a leave of absence after a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a minor in 2014. The B.C. Prosecution Service investigated the allegations in the past but did not recommend charges. There may not be any further updates for another two months, when council may have to vote on extending his leave.
Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. North Vancouver | If you’ve ever noticed that election campaign signs are particularly exuberant in the District of North Vancouver, that’s because there’s virtually no regulations on how big they can be or where they can go. A majority of council approved having staff look at alternatives, so expect another debate on this perennial issue soon.
Read more in the North Shore News | | | |  | | | 5. Cats! | There are plenty of ways that dogs and cats are different — including how city halls treat them. In general, there’s very limited regulation around felines, with Victoria the only major city in B.C. that bans them from being off-leash outdoors. Nanaimo may soon join them, while this week, Richmond council poured cold water on getting involved.
Read more | | | | | | The first of what will be a number of local elections in B.C. in the next few months takes place Saturday in Metro Vancouver’s smallest municipality.
While waterfront Belcarra only has 643 people, the position of mayor does come with a vote at the TransLink Mayors’ Council and a place on the Metro Vancouver board, so its influence is real.
And its residents will be choosing a new mayor after Neil Belenkie resigned in October to protest council rejecting the sale of land to fund upgrades to the city’s water system.
Running to replace him are the two people Belenkie defeated in 2018 — former longtime Coun. Jamie Ross and anesthesiologist Colm Cole.
Given that Ross received 40 per cent of the vote to Cole’s 10 per cent in 2018, he’s likely the favourite. And much like 2018, he’s running on a campaign of not shaking things up too much, following the 35-year mayorship of Ralph Drew.
“I wanted to talk to residents about a need to lower the temperature of the community discussions, and we need to be focusing our intensity on issues, not on people,” he said. Belenkie focused much of his attention on Belcarra’s finances — it’s one of only 11 municipalities in B.C. with negative net financial assets (debt), and with so few people and no commercial or industrial base, its ability to raise funds is limited.
Ross’s philosophy is different.
“It’s been said we've got a financial problem. We don't. Our issue is what our regional reputation is. And I've got established relationships at the metro, at the provincial, at the federal level, and I want to move forward in a way that we're working as partners,” he said.
Assuming Ross wins — Cole did not respond to an email and phone request for an interview — he’ll have a couple of years to establish his vision.
And a couple of years to prove to the public whether or not Belenkie’s warnings were overblown. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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