Council asked to support permits for 197 rentals in downtown Kelowna

Kelowna City Council will be asked to support the issuance of development permits for nearly 200 residential units on Clement Avenue.

On Monday, city staff will be recommending support for a project located at 815-865 Clement Avenue, which is between Richter and Ellis streets.

The properties were rezoned to the MF3r – Apartment Housing Rental Only zone in March.

If the application is successful, there will be 36 bachelor units, 78 one-bedrooms, 75 two-bedrooms and eight three-bedrooms.

There would be two six-storey buildings and all the units would be rentals.

“In order to reduce the scale and massing of the buildings, the applicant amended their original design which included a single 115 m long building, and instead separated the proposal into two separate buildings with a shared underground parkade,” says a staff report.

According to the report, there would be 201 parking stalls shared between an underground parkade and at-grade parking.

Two car share stalls would be provided and access to the sight would be off a laneway on the east side of the property.

Over 150 long-term bicycle stalls will be built in the project.

Staff say “significantly” more amenity space is provided than the minimum zoning bylaw requirements, which would include rooftop patios with outdoor furniture, games tables, barbecues, a dog run and planter boxes.

According to the report, the proposal “generally” conforms to the OCP guidelines by avoiding blank and windowless walls along streets, locating off-street parking and other “back-of-house” uses away from the public view, incorporating a range of architectural features and limiting the length of the residential building facades.

No variances are being requested from this application.

Kelowna council will review the proposal on July 22 at 1:30 pm.