Kelowna increasingly adding new homes without the sprawl

Photo: Lime Architecture

Wardlaw Avenue apartment

Several unrelated decisions by Kelowna city council Monday caught the attention of one councillor.

Council approved a number of minor two lot subdivisions and one three-storey apartment building that, taken separately, didn't warrant much commentary.

But, added together, Coun. Luke Stack said these additions are significant.

If all go ahead as planned, he said that will amount to 14 new households within the city without giving up a single square foot of land.

"Once upon a time, if we were issuing 14 new lots, it wasn't uncommon that they would be a third of an acre so, essentially, we would be using about a five-acre chunk of land to bring 14 new homes into our community," said Stack.

"If you're a growing city, you would just chop up another farm, cut out five acres, build a 14-lot subdivision and away you go."

However, Monday's series of applications only included building on land presently being used for housing.

"In today's series of applications, we're not actually using one extra square foot of land that's isn't already being used for housing.

"When you look at our plans for growth as a city, this is quite interesting to see we've got 14 new households, but we're not growing the city land base."

The city has in recent years signalled a shift away from new developments on its outskirts. Earlier this year council rejected a new 680-home subdivision in the Upper Mission in an effort to rein in sprawl.