A Year in Review: The City of Kelowna

This past year for Kelowna has been full of new projects, a lot of construction, and many new partnerships.

A survey that was put out said 95 per cent of residents say their quality of life in Kelowna is good, or very good. The amount of people who say they are satisfied with the level and quality of services the City of Kelowna provides is 94 per cent.

The City of Kelowna, the District of Lake Country, the board of the Regional District of North Okanagan, and the Province of British Columbia partnered together this year to buy the discontinued CN railway. The railway runs from Coldstream to Kelowna that creates a regional transportation corridor. The corridor helps connect Okanagan communities and helps provide even more ways to explore the area.

Another huge purchase for the city this year was the property on Lakeshore Road, which will be a future beach park, helping grow the Kelowna waterfront by three acres.

If you’re talking about Kelowna and the word construction doesn’t follow, something is wrong. This year so much construction has been taking place in the city. Work began on the Library Parkade and the new Memorial Parkade, the Interior Health Building, and the Okanagan Centre for Innovation.

This year Kelowna also got a lot more active. In 2015 the City launched Active by Nature, which is an online interactive route map to show residents where to go to get out and get active. The map shows pathways, shared trails, and beaches in the area that you can explore.

A program that focused around resident engagement was launched in 2015. The program called Strong Neighbourhoods is all about inspiring neighbourhoods to create a culture of connection and engagement. Nine thousand dollars in grants were awarded, 23 initiatives were supported, and more than 6,400 residents took part in the program.

Kelowna worked on becoming a safer city this year. The city supported six regional fires through Emergency Operation Centre activations, implemented bylaw enforcement foot patrols downtown, and began construction on the new Police Services Building. In the survey 94 per cent of residents feel the city is safe.

The City maintained 1,640 km of roadways, reviewed and issued more than 700 development applications, provided more than 4,500 recreation programs, approved $320,000 in rental housing grants, and installed more than 40 wayfinding signs on Kelowna active transportation and recreation corridors.

The Kelowna International Airport had 1.6 million passengers in 2015.

To view the full Year in Review from the City of Kelowna, click here.