Your Voice: Plan to reduce Abbott Street heritage area by 25% is shocking and discouraging

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Dear Editor,

The assault on the Abbott Street Heritage Conservation Area continues.

Hidden deep within various documents attached to a public hearing on late Tuesday afternoon, May 14, 2024, is a plan to reduce the size of the heritage area by 25 per cent with no alerts to the public.

This is both shocking and discouraging that the city has been planning this. The excuse is, the province recently designated Kelowna General Hospital as a transit hub which will allow six-storey apartment buildings in the heritage area.

This of course is going to have a major impact. It was hoped that the Heritage Advisory Committee could be brought back and at least help with such buildings to better fit into the area.

The city doesn’t have to remove this area from the HCA.

They could keep this in the HCA to ensure continued protection of it. This residential plan was laid out in 1904, one year before Kelowna was incorporated. It was designated as a Heritage Conservation Area in 1998 through the Local Government Act, as the heritage value was recognized by a former Kelowna City Council, who had vision.

Further, with much sleuthing, it was found that the remaining part of the HCA will be subject to townhouses, commercial, and institutional uses. This is despite the RU1 zoning confirmed by this same City Council on March 18, 2024, which does not allow these uses in the HCA.

How can we trust this city? Please attend the Public Hearing on Tuesday (4:30 pm) May 14, 2024, and let the mayor and councillors know your thoughts on this. Each member of the public has five minutes each to speak. Every voice counts.

You can also write to the mayor and councillors before Monday noon via the city clerk. Every letter counts.

What can you do?

• Express your opposition to reducing the City’s heritage as a result of reducing the HCA by 25 per cent in the hospital’s transit zone (TOA);
• Encourage the City Council and City Planners to strengthen, rather than diminish, the wording and attention to the preservation of structural and natural heritage for Kelowna’s long-term benefit;
• Ask the city to withdraw the option for townhouse, commercial, and institutional uses in the HCAs;
• Ask the city to re-establish the Heritage Advisory Committee

Documents associated with this public hearing are on the city’s website.

The HCA will be discussed under Agenda Items 15 and 21 and the public can speak at both. Council will then vote.