2040 Official Community Plan: Our Kelowna as we grow

Throughout this final phase of Kelowna's 2040 Official Community Plan engagement, we will be offering a series of online discussion forums.

The 2040 OCP forum topics will be open a week at a time as follows:

• Climate action & environment: runs February 11-18
• Urban Centres & residential infill: runs  February 25- March 4
• Agricultural lands & suburban neighbourhoods: runs March 11-18

Your personal information will remain confidential. If you feel uncomfortable with sharing your name in Get Involved forums and chats, you are welcome to use a pseudonym (pen name) as your username.

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Chapters 7 and 8 of the Draft 2040 OCP
• The 2040 OCP agricultural lands & suburbs infographic

The pressure to find new land for a growing city can threaten agricultural lands over time. However, protecting and preserving rural and agricultural lands - and supporting the economic viability of our agricultural sector - has never been more important. The OCP contains a permanent growth boundary and urban development is discouraged outside of that boundary.

Key directions to protect agricultural land and limit sprawl include: 

• Minimize growth in outlying areas
• Protect agricultural land from encroachment – lands outside of the permanent growth boundary would not be supported for further development unless already designated in the 2030 OCP. 
• Make existing suburbs more complete by supporting corner stores, cafes, and other amenities 

Questions for discussion 

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Chapters 7 and 8 of the Draft 2040 OCP
• The 2040 OCP agricultural lands & suburbs infographic

Infrastructure investments and growth will be primarily focused in Urban Centres and the Core Area because it's the most financially and environmentally sustainable way to grow. Although no new suburban neighbourhoods will be supported through the 2040 OCP, making existing suburban neighbourhoods more complete will ensure that more of residents' daily needs are met closer to home and help improve quality of life.

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Completing village centres to serve the surrounding neighbourhood
• Improving the pedestrian experience / walkability
• Providing new transportation options where feasible to connect neighbourhoods with employment areas
• Encouraging corner stores, cafes and other amenities in suburban neighbourhoods
• Supporting ground-oriented multi-family dwellings

Questions for discussion 

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Chapters 4and 5 of the Draft 2040 OCP
• The 2040 OCP Urban Centres infographic
• The 2040 OCP residential infill infographic

The 2040 OCP aims to grow five Urban Centres as the city’s main hubs of activity. These Urban Centres are Downtown, Pandosy, Rutland, Capri Landmark and Midtown, which is the area surrounding the Orchard Park mall. Quite simply, it's about having more stuff to do in these five areas, while ensuring each Urban Centre still feels unique and special.

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Directing new larger office buildings and post-secondary campuses into Urban Centres
• Supporting new sidewalk patios and mobile uses like food trucks in the Urban Centres.
• Directing the city’s taller buildings to Downtown and Capri Landmark while focusing on mid-rises in shorter buildings in select locations in Pandosy, Rutland and Midtown.
• Designing new buildings to be more visually interesting and unique, particularly at street level
• Prioritizing public amenities, services, shops and infrastructure investments in Urban Centres
• Encouraging diverse cultural experiences and creating great public spaces like new parks, plazas and more lively, walkable streets

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Chapters 4and 5 of the Draft 2040 OCP
• The 2040 OCP Urban Centres infographic
• The 2040 OCP residential infill infographic

The draft OCP looks to add more housing and housing variety in the Core Area, largely through residential infill. In the Core Area, we can expect to see more “missing middle” housing forms (house-scale multi-family dwellings, like townhouses, that fill the gap between single detached homes and taller apartment buildings). 

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Designing new missing middle housing so that it fits the character of the existing neighbourhood
• Supporting site design that provides onsite parking and preserves mature trees as much as possible
• Keeping higher density housing types like apartments focused along corridors and Urban Centres
• Considering limited opportunities for infill in the Heritage Conservation Area consistent with heritage development guidelines. Infill may include suites, carriage homes, second homes, subdivisions, and multiple dwelling housing. Large infill projects requiring lot consolidations would be discouraged

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Chapters 4and 5 of the Draft 2040 OCP
• The 2040 OCP Urban Centres infographic
• The 2040 OCP residential infill infographic

As Kelowna grows, we will need to make transit, bicycling and walking safer and more convenient to give people more choices for how to get around. Where we focus new growth will determine how convenient it is to use these modes, which is why the draft OCP signals a series of Transit Supportive Corridors where additional density would be considered.These corridors would link our Urban Centres, working with the Transportation Master Plan to ensure that people and places are better connected.

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Supporting investments in transit along key corridors that connect our Urban Centres and Core Area neighbourhoods
• Focusing low rise apartments along current and future transit corridors like Richter Street, Pandosy Street, Rutland Road and Clement Avenue
• Keeping buildings residential along most of the corridor, but allowing for some commercial uses like cafes and corner stores at certain intersections

  
  

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Draft 2040 Official Community Plan Chapters 12 and 14
• 2040 OCP climate and environment infographic 

The most effective action our community can take to protect the natural environment and tackle climate change is to build a more compact city. This is why the 2040 OCP focuses growth in areas where homes, jobs, and amenities are all easily accessible.

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Supporting more compact housing forms to limit sprawl, protect agriculture and leave more land in a natural state
• Encouraging energy-efficient, multi-unit housing  
• Focusing employment growth in Urban Centres
• Creating amenity-rich neighbourhoods  that meet more of people’s daily needs and require less trips by car
• Continuing to protect and preserve ecologically sensitive lands
• Growing in areas that best support transit, walking, and biking to lower greenhouse gas emissions

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Draft 2040 Official Community Plan Chapters 12 and 14
• 2040 OCP climate and environment infographic

Kelowna’s natural environment is a cornerstone of Kelowna’s identity, supporting the community’s health, economy, and livability - however, much of our natural environment has been lost or damaged due to development. The OCP provides the opportunity to strategically plan how the city will grow while protecting our precious natural assets and restoring what's been lost for future generations.

Key directions to achieve this vision include:

• Reducing air pollution from motor vehicles by discouraging land uses and activities that require idling and encouraging other modes of transportation
• Preserving the health of Okanagan Lake
• Protecting ecologically sensitive lands and species at risk
• Enhancing biodiversity and landscape diversity
• Protecting and expanding a healthy urban forest
• Minimizing growth in outlying areas
• Preserve ecosystem corridors for habitat connectivity, migration and wildlife populations

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?

Before joining this discussion, check out the following recommended reading:

• Draft 2040 Official Community Plan Chapters 12 and 14
• 2040 OCP climate and environment infographic

To mitigate climate impacts, our community needs to significantly reduce emissions within the next few decades through effective land use planning. In Kelowna, transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions. Building and retrofitting energy efficient buildings and prioritizing more efficient waste management systems will also help our community do our part in fighting global climate change – while also reducing household energy costs, and creating a healthier, more livable city.

Key directions to achieve this vision include: 

• Transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2050
• Improving energy efficiency in new and existing buildings
• Reducing our GHG emissions by 80% by 2050
  • Supporting low-carbon transportation options like cycling or electric vehicles
  • Limiting growth in car-dependent areas, such as suburban hillsides, and investing in active transportation and transit networks
• Prepare for and become resilient to the impacts of climate change by improving vulnerable infrastructure and adapting to extreme weather events
• Collaborating with syilx/Okanagan People to incorporate Indigenous knowledge in climate change action

Questions for discussion

1. What do you like about the key directions?
2. How might these key directions be improved? 
3. Is there anything missing?