Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Government of Canada February 24, 2021 - 10:55 AM Nestled next to the proposed UBC Okanagan downtown campus will be a six-storey, 68-unit affordable housing building. The site at 555 Fuller Ave. is where Pathways Abilities Society used to be located and is across the alley from the UBCO site on Doyle Avenue. That building was used for an emergency winter shelter for the homeless last winter. The land is owned by the City of Kelowna but the housing is being funded by the federal and provincial governments. Those two levels of government are contributing a total of approximately $12.63 million to the project.
The property in question is adjacent to the City’s easterly corporate boundary and also adjacent to City-owned lands that lie within the RM of Wallace, explained Michael Eger – Director of Planning, Building & Development with the City. The subject lands are designated for Commercial land use in the District Plan, and zoned High Profile Commercial/Light Industrial (HPC) in the RM’s Zoning Bylaw. In order to accommodate the application, the RM is considering a text amendment to their zoning bylaw which would make a Salvage Yard/Machine wrecker a Discretionary Use in that zone. Under Planning and Development Act, 2007, the RM was required to issue public notice to adjacent landowners. The City received formal notice of the application and the RM’s intent to consider at a Public Hearing, to be held on Feb. 12, noted Eger.