Several waterfront property owners are asking the courts to invalidate the City of Kelowna’s reclassification of their properties as future parklands.
The landowners say the redesignation under the new official community plan was done improperly, and they claim it unfairly lowers the properties’ value by making it likely the only future purchaser would be the city itself.
“The designation will decrease the value of the properties, slowly degrade the neighborhood, and impede the owners’ ability to apply for and obtain higher density designations,” their petition alleges.
In their legal challenge to the city’s actions, the waterfront owners enlisted an unlikely ally – former city manager Ron Mattiussi, who wrote a submission to the court on their behalf.
In their petition to the BC Supreme Court, Murray Braaten, Lyle Braaten, Norma Sebestyen, Sheila Braaten, and Terry Gold say the city had plans to identify the property at 3142 Watt Road as future parkland, to provide beach access, under the official community plan.
But last year, they say, other Watt Road residents began getting notices from the city that their properties would also be given this classification.
“At no time before it issued the notice did the City engage or discuss the proposed park designation with the Petitioners, or other Watt Road residents,” the court application states.
Last March, the Watt Road property owners asked city staff to remove the future parkland designation from the OCP, which was then in the process of being updated.
Mattiussi, who retired as city manager in 2018, wrote a letter on behalf of the Watt Road residents in which he questioned the need for new parks in the area, particularly given what he said was the high cost of acquiring waterfront land. Mattiussi also suggested the reclassification process itself was flawed.
At a July 12, 2021 council meeting, the application says, councillors voted in support of a motion to designate eight Watt Road properties as future parkland under the updated OCP.
The petition to the court alleges the city’s actions were unlawful, unreasonable, and conducted in bad faith. It asks the court to quash either the official community plan in its entirety or those portions of it affecting the Watt Road properties.
The City of Kelowna has not yet filed a response with the courts.
