Kelowna council approves 45 rental units in the Pandosy area

A five-storey rental building proposed for the Pandosy area has been approved by Kelowna City Council.

During the Tuesday meeting, city councillors supported a project proposed for 667 and 681 Wardlaw Avenue.

The property was rezoned in January to allow for the rental only subzone.

The project will have 12 micro-suites, 21 one-bedroom units, nine two-bedrooms and three three-bedrooms.

Common amenity space would be provided in an indoor amenity room on the second floor and an outdoor area on the fifth floor.

Twenty five parking stalls and 65 long-term bicycle parking stalls will be included in the building.

One of those parking spaces is for a MODO car-share and six are visitor stalls, which leaves 18 parking spaces for 45 dwelling units.

“In order to achieve this parking rate, the applicant is utilizing the following parking reductions: rental only sub-zone (9 stalls), on-site car-share (5 stalls), additional long term bicycle parking (5 stalls), and finally the applicant is paying 2 cash-in-lieu of parking stalls,” city staff said.

The cash-in-lieu payment totals between $38,000 and $39,000 per stall.

City staff argued that the site has limited dimensions making it difficult to build parking that meets the zoning bylaw rate.

They point out that the site is a five minute walk to transit stops, a five minute walk to “numerous job opportunities,” 800 metres away from Okanagan College and a 10 minute walk to Kelowna General Hospital. They add that there is additional bicycle infrastructure and a car-share on site.

This application was dealt with during a Tuesday public hearing because of a variance request to reduce a portion of the building’s stepback from the required three meters to zero metres along Richter Street.

A stepback is when a portion of a building is moved back slightly above a certain height to maintain a pedestrian friendly streetscape and avoid shadows.

“The massing is not anticipated to be significant as the residential units, where the stepback is required, have an increased setback than the stairwell and mechanical room, which reduces the overall massing,” city staff said.

Ultimately, city council supported the project and agreed to issue the development permit.