Kelowna one step closer to badly needed apartment building downtown

KELOWNA – Close to 100 new apartments are coming to downtown Kelowna now that city council approved an application to combine eight lots on Harvey Avenue into one.

Plans for the 93-unit, six-storey apartment building were first brought to council in 2015 and on Monday, Jan. 30, city planner Ryan Smith advised council to rezone eight separate lots on Leon Avenue and Harvey Avenue.

Citing a need for more rental housing in Kelowna, which has one of the lowest availability rates in Canada, council approved the motion.

Coun. Luke Stack worries about an ongoing graffiti problem in that area and Coun. Tracy Gray and Coun. Maxine DeHart recommended the developers landscape carefully to avoid it looking like “a big piece of cement.”

While the average rent in Kelowna and surrounding areas rose 4.5 per cent to $976 in October, the vacancy rate dropped from 0.7 per cent in October, 2015 to 0.6 per by the end of 2016, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

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