The HIGHLIGHTS of the OCP Draft, as they pertain to Westbank are listed below:

The Complete OCP Review is available for viewing at the District of West Kelowna's web site: http://www.districtofwestkelowna.ca/

Our community’s heart, Westbank Town Centre, will be a place to live, work and play. Throughout our community, neighbourhoods will be supported by a quaint and mixed use community corner. Preserving rural areas, unique ecosystems, and farming, will require new growth to focus towards compact and mixed use centres.

Create a Vibrant & Mixed Town Centre

The Westbank Town Centre was the subject of past planning processes, and is anticipated to be the focus for more detailed planning in 2009 / 2010. For this reason, the public was invited to re‐design the town centre’ in an exercise held at the Public Ideas Forum (April 27, 2009). In general, participants were unanimous in their desire for a more vibrant, walkable, pedestrian‐friendly downtown / town centre area. When asked where the heart should be located, Westbank Town Centre was the predominant answer. They identified parks, plazas, shopping “High Streets”, and dynamic shopping districts as vital to the creation of a better town centre. Although everyone wanted higher densities, people were divided on the issue of high‐rises. Some likened their vision to that of downtown Vancouver, while others wanted to limit multi‐storey developments to 3 or 4 story buildings. However, most were in favour of mixed‐use developments and small boutiques. Most were opposed to big box stores, but might make allowances if the stores were more attractive and less “boxy”. The same applied to industrial areas. Lastly, connecting parks and public areas through greenways or predominantly pedestrian connections were strongly supported by most of the groups for the town centre.

 Focusing Area for New Civic Facilities: Residents were split as to where the District should be planning for and developing new civic facilities. Most respondents were concerned that new community facilities should not be located exclusively in the proposed town centre location. It was proposed that a more ideal location would be located near the geographic centre of the community;

 Historical Settlements: Recognizing the Historical Boundaries of Westbank was a key theme that emerged late in the process; and,

 Walkability: Removing Barriers to Creating a More Pedestrian Friendly Town Centre was a key concern expressed in many different ways.

4.3 Proposed Directions

1. Focus new residential growth in the Westbank Town Centre area and allow greater

mixed use development.

a. Allow more housing and shopping in the form of mixed use buildings (residential, commercial and/ or office in one building) and apartment buildings of all sizes

b. Prioritize medium density apartments (4 to 6 storeys) but allow some high rise apartments in key areas such to signal important areas such as gateways, or major focal points of the centre.

c. Permit infill development on existing commercial sites in the form of mixed use development

d. Plan for small active parks such as pedestrian streets, plazas and/or major community gathering places (for public celebration / protest and farmer’s markets) to be included in the town centre, where appropriate

e. Develop an urban design plan and carry out residential development scenarios to ensure the needs of new residents needs can be met (i.e. services and parks)

f. Ensure some community facilities are located in the town centre area where possible so as to ensure these important destinations are within walking distance from new housing (as proposed above)

g. Prioritize major transit stops for local and regional transit in the Town Centre

h. The extent of the Town Centre in which the above measures are proposed, should be defined by the 10 minute walkshed. A walkshed defines an area in which one can go for a convenient and short walk. A 10 minute walk represents an 800m diameter from the centre of the Westbank Town Centre in all directions. This area should be used to generally contain mixed use and denser development.

Recognizing Historical Settlements

A passionate group of citizens, known as ‘Citizens for a Historic Westbank’, have come forward in this process to request that the formerly unincorporated area known as Westbank be recognized as a Heritage Conservation Area (HCA) in the OCP. This is a position that has been put forward by the group to address concerns about the ‘loss’ of the Westbank name and to ‘re‐establish the town within the District of West Kelowna’. While designating heritage significance in an OCP is entirely the discretion of the local government and its Council, it must be noted that based on the concerns expressed, to date in memo format and through feedback gained at the Community Futures Forum, an HCA is not the most effective tool for addressing the concerns that have been expressed by the group. Behind every position is a concern; as communicated to date, the concerns raised by the group of Westbank residents are understood to be:

 Concern over the loss of the name Westbank;

 Concern over the potential loss of the identification of Westbank as a unique place with a 100 year history; and

 Concern over the fact that the area known as ‘Westbank’ is limited to the town centre only.

In a separate memo provided to the consulting team, the group also advocates for an HCA because it has numerous economic, social and cultural benefits. However, it is not the HCA that brings these benefits; it is the actual heritage assets such as historical buildings and remarkable places. Indeed, Westbank has been settled for at least 100 years by western settlers, but, at this stage, a detailed inventory of heritage assets for Westbank has not been produced.

Considering the above concerns is important, however, this process has also collected input from citizens from all parts of the community and they must be considered as well. A great deal of that input has been directed explicitly towards concerns about applying special Preliminary OCP Consultation | Growth Management & the Built Environment Section 21 designations to the Westbank area. Regarding a separate but related issue, there have been a number of concerns expressed from the public that relate to ensuring that the OCP equitably allocates community facilities, amenities, and services throughout the community and not in one area (specifically, in Westbank). While the concerns expressed by the Westbank group are legitimate, it is clear that the whole community has similar concerns about the geographic polar nature of the community. For this reason, all planning solutions proposed to address the concerns of the vocal Westbank residents must also be broadly applicable to all parts of the community in order to be equitable. To address the above concerns and benefits of an HCA offered by the Citizens for a Historic Westbank, the following tools are proposed to be further explored in the OCP process:

 Implement area specific unique form and character guidelines: Form and character design guidelines for multifamily, commercial and industrial development should be developed that reflect a unified vision for a unique ‘West Kelowna’ character. However, for major geographic areas in the community, more sophisticated or ‘fine‐tuned’ guidelines can be introduced that reflect local variations of form and character. For instance, the Lakeview and Westbank Town Centre have unique attributes and existing characters. What elements about those two places can be identified to enable the development of unique architectural guidelines for new development? What elements can we ‘turn up the volume’ on that will lead to a unique sense of place for each corner of the community? These questions and opportunities can be explored as the process continues;

 Revitalization Tax Exemption: To promote mixed use and higher density infill development proposed in Section 4.0, the District should consider the use of Revitalization Tax Exemptions for Westbank Town Centre and possibly each community corner. Coupled with area‐specific character guidelines, this tool could be a powerful tool for attracting growth to each designated growth area and realizing Preliminary OCP Consultation | Growth Management & the Built Environment Section 22 numerous economic development objectives including tourism, local job creation and small business incubation; and,

 Smaller / Boutique Commercial Presence: The Westbank First Nation (WFN) made a significant choice to pursue large format retail as a primary leasee of their lands along Hwy #97. This move has drawn energy away from the more traditional shopping area of Westbank Town Centre. However, not all retail has left the Westbank Town Centre area. Going forward, the OCP process should investigate strategies for not competing with the large format retail that is found on WFN lands by encouraging more pedestrian oriented and finer‐grained (small parcel and/or small frontages) commercial retail. Pandosy St in Kelowna is a perfect local example of this type of retail street format. This format of retail is ideal for mixed‐use buildings where apartments can be located above the retail. Action items to consider that address the concerns raised by the Citizens for a Historic Westbank group that do not relate to the scope of an OCP include:

 Character street signage for all neighbourhoods or precincts in the District;

 Interpretive signage that recognizes local heritage assets and local history; and,

 Tourism assistance that focuses on promoting local visits,shopping and entertainment.

The above suggestions can be reviewed in the context of upcoming cultural and heritage planning initiatives.

Hopes and Fears

Participants were asked to record their top hopes and fears for the future of West Kelowna.

Their top hopes revolved around:

1. Building the sense of community while at the same time retaining a sense of historical identity and connectedness. Social cohesion and dialogue was also important.

4. Removing the couplet. Participants felt that the couplet should be removed in order to create a more vibrant town centre.

7. Name change. The recent name change remains a contentious issue for some, with feedback ranging from “We like to have Westbank” to “We like to have West Kelowna”, to “Just get over the name thing”.

Top fears revolved around:

7. Loss of community identity. Some people were worried that Westbank’s identity would be lost, while others worried that Westbank would “take over”

8. Lack of cooperation with Westbank First Nations

Your Ideal Neighbourhood

Westbank Town Centre

Likes

 Potential and convenience  Keeping town of Westbank  Green space

 Farms  Smaller businesses  Gellatly walkway

 Waterfront  Is this what is left of Westbank?  The entrance to our community – off Coq?

Dislikes

 Couplet  Couplet and Main & Dobbin  Parking on Couplet  Crossing the street

 Trying to shop  Potholes  Idea of developing on A.L.R  I think we could “beautify” more, i.e. benches, garbage, flowers

 No town center (downtown parse)  Can’t walk around

DESIGN OF DOWNTOWN CORE

Additional comments (no design created)

9. Westbank has traditionally been the downtown of this area. It is our town, our town centre and it’s diving because of the couplet system. Before anything can happen, the couplet has to go. I am not in favor of building too high. I believe it destroys the fabric of

the community and families who live here. Can we dare to different? Can we dare to unique? Can we not copy cat and follow trends to high density urbanization? Slow down before we destroy it all.

10. We want a neighborhood of Westbank!! Keep all the little neighborhoods, especially Westbank. Work with highways to get rid of the Dobbin Road, Main Couplet to build a downtown. Couplet is dangerous for pedestrians and confusing drivers still, inconvenient too. Two way highways with round‐a‐bouts at both ends.

6. Where should our downtown be located?

Responses to this exercise indicated that the downtown should stay in Westbank, although several people identified Shannon Lake, Gellatly, and the area north of Mount Boucherie as well.

14 Exploring Directions Survey –

Results

11. Today, our downtown is made up of car‐oriented stores, and is surrounded by single‐family detached homes and some apartments. When considering the future of downtown West Kelowna (today’ Westbank Town Centre), which statement best reflects your vision ofthe future? (choose 1)