A group of Kelowna business owners have teamed up to postpone a supportive housing project for their business park and claim they were not even notified.
The group is asking the city council to approve a decision on BC Housing’s application for a building permit at 1642 Commerce Ave.
On December 1st, when the provincial government announced in a press release that it would develop 55 supportive housing units for the homeless in Mill Creek Commerce Park (MCCP) on Enterprise Way.
“To be clear, our opposition to this development permit is based on a lack of due process and fairness,” said Tony Gaspari, one of the founding developers of the MCCP. “A decision is being made that will affect all of the businesses around it, and none of us have been consulted or even informed.”
The business owners said neither the city nor BC Housing had informed neighboring stakeholders of the proposed development or the application for a building permit.
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Some of them stated that they only found out about the development when asked by Global News.
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“We have no objection to the broad objectives of the British Columbia Government’s Supportive Housing Strategy or the specific supportive housing development proposal on the issue,” said Gaspari. “In fact, we are ready to work with the province and the city to develop such a project that will meet the needs of everyone involved.”
Gaspari noted that in addition to the lack of consultation, the MCCP business owners have significant concerns about the proposed development. When the 20 acre business park was developed in 2002 with the full support of Kelowna City Council, it passed a number of design guidelines for appropriate shape and character.
The planned load-bearing residential development will be built from renovated former workcamp construction trailers, which are stacked up to two stories high and placed on temporary foundations.
Many of the MCCP business owners believe that the character of the building lacks sensitivity to the established neighborhood and does not conform to accepted neighborhood design guidelines. The group also said it violated the city’s own guidelines on what government developments should be “attractive and sensitive to the established neighborhood.”
“We respectfully ask the city to postpone the approval of the building permit in the interests of fairness to all involved,” said Gaspari. “This process is accelerating without proper thought and regardless of the long-term impact it will have on the neighborhood and the livelihoods of the people who work and own there.”
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