Officials at the city hall ribbon cutting event today in West Kelowna.

Image Credit: X - City of West Kelowna

West Kelowna’s latest housing development denial is meant to communicate to the BC government that solving the housing crisis isn’t as simple as giving cities a quota for new housing units, and rapid development comes with hidden costs.

West Kelowna city council expressed concern about provincial housing targets in the Housing Statues Amendment Act as it denied an application for a 117-unit townhouse development on Gorman Road in Glenrosa at a recent meeting.

The province has mandated West Kelowna build 2,266 net-new housing units over five years, and city council said it isn’t a reasonable expectation without more support on infrastructure from the province.

“I don't like being bound by a housing target either, especially if it's, ‘at all costs, just put housing in, because that's what we're telling you we need.’ There's a way to do that sensitively,” councillor Stephen Johnston said in the meeting.

Council had concerns about the cost of infrastructure upgrades needed to accommodate so many units in Glenrosa, a phenomenon sometimes described as “iceberg costs.”

Kelowna’s planning director Ryan Smith explained the iceberg cost of development.

“The upfront cost is the top of the iceberg that you can see, and below the waterline is the bigger cost, and that's the long-term maintenance and renewal of infrastructure,” he said.

This shows how the long term cost of new developments are hidden.

Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna

The provincial government put in housing targets for cities last year in an effort to spur municipalities to build more housing. West Kelowna council adamantly denied the application not because the housing project itself was problematic, but because the neighbourhood doesn’t have the infrastructure to support so many more residents.

Councillor Millsap hammered the point home that without assistance on infrastructure from the province a hasty attempt to build more housing wouldn’t be productive.

“Let the province come and build us a secondary egress. Let the province come and build us a second power line. Then we can start talking about development in Glenrosa. Then we can start talking about development in other neighbourhoods, development that's smart and right for our community,” he said.

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Smith said Kelowna has also been telling the province that infrastructure upgrades are a serious cost for rapidly growing cities.

“And Kelowna, for example, has been advocating with the B.C. government for a few years now for a new model of long-term sustainable infrastructure funding to make sure that for faster-growing cities, we're keeping up with infrastructure needs,” he said.

Smith said municipalities try to anticipate long-term growth and plan accordingly but it isn’t always as cut and dry as putting infrastructure in first and then allowing for more growth.

“Cities aren't perfect places. They're like living complex organisms,” he said. “Sometimes we have challenges that we didn't expect. And whether that's like COVID or tariffs, those things all impact when and how we deliver infrastructure that is outside of our control.”

When it comes to allowing new housing in areas with infrastructure concerns Smith said cities know which areas aren’t ready to accommodate more residents.

“The cities should be aware of those areas if they're doing proper planning and should not have been applying new builds to those areas,” he said.

When West Kelowna makes its report to the province on the progress towards the mandated housing targets it has the opportunity to explain why it turned down development applications.

“This is a safety and infrastructure concern. And I can't wait to have our staff send the letter to the province and say this is why,” Coun. Millsap said. “We need infrastructure as a city so we can grow. And tonight, I'll be supporting the denial motion.”

The chief concern raised by councillors had to do with a lack of roads leading out of Glenrosa, particularly in case of wildfire evacuation.

“I got evacuated again. That was twice. I don't want to see what recently happened in L.A. happen to us. I don't wanna be in a situation where we have 20 per cent of West Kelowna's population stuck up on that hill,” councillor Tasha Da Silva said.

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The West Kelowna Fire Department evaluated the project and said it didn’t have any safety concerns, but some councillors weren’t satisfied.

Another issue with developing higher density housing in the area is the lack of amenities like stores, parks and schools.

“When we talk about commercial infrastructure, there's a liquor store and a convenience store. That's not commercial infrastructure,” councillor Garrett Millsap said. “You can get a pack of cigarettes and a case of beer, and that's what it's literally limited to.”

Kelowna recently announced that it managed to surpass its provincial housing target, but the city’s energy supplier FortisBC has run into some problems when it comes to supplying power to large-scale construction projects that require more than 500 kilowatts near downtown.

"In central Kelowna, we're upgrading Saucier substation and that will be completed in 2027," FortisBC spokesperson Gary Toft previously told iNFOnews.ca. "There are some that we're asking to work with us and we will connect them as soon as possible, but we're not able to connect them today."

Smith said although the energy supply is a problem, he doesn’t think any below ground infrastructure is going to run into similar issues.

“I know we continue to work with our partners at Fortis to see how we can help them resolve their challenges with getting us far,” Smith said.

Prior to the West Kelowna council meeting there was a 90 minute public hearing and some residents expressed support for the development emphasizing the fact that the entire nation is facing a housing crisis.

Some residents were extremely opposed to the development citing infrastructure concerns including water system issues and a lack of sidewalks in addition to the same concerns council discussed in its meeting.

The controversial townhome development has been halted, but the provincial housing targets for West Kelowna are still in place.

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