An early rendering of the proposed development on the old RCMP site in downtown Kelowna.

Image Credit: Submitted/RISE

First it was the Kelowna Legacy Group fighting against a City of Kelowna plan to redevelop the former RCMP building in downtown Kelowna.

Now it’s Kelowna’s tech sector pushing back.

The Legacy Group held a news conference and posted a video in 2019 saying the site should be part of a redesigned “civic precinct” and called for nothing be built there until a new plan was drawn up. It suggested an 11-storey hotel in that location.

That proposal fell on deaf ears at City Hall, which said it already had a plan in place for the area.

READ MORE: Legacy group 'shocked' over council reactions to proposal

A developer was picked by the city and the design it put forward was for a 13-storey condo that essentially covered the whole site and did not taper off as it rose.

That led to the neighbouring Innovation Center to launch a petition campaign on Change.org to fight the massive size of the building, saying it did not fit the existing plan in terms of sight lines and shadow effects.

“The current design goes against almost every guideline set out in the City’s Civic Precinct Plan and will become a block-wide 15-storey apartment obstructing the Rooftop Park, Innovation Centre and The Madison (condo building),” the petition states.

The Innovation Centre was built next to the city’s downtown Library as a way to attract tech companies and entrepreneurs to the city and is across a laneway to the Library Parkade from the proposed tower.

Their petition only attracted 336 signatures but led to a meeting between RISE (now renamed Appelt Developments) and Lane Merrifield, the former owner of Club Penguin and former “dragon” on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.

“The developer is working on a revised design that responds to the neighbours’ concerns and expects there will be more information and more opportunity for neighbourhood input in the coming weeks,” Mary Lapointe, who is managing community relations for Appelt Properties, told iNFOnews.ca.

She said the changes are due to community input as well as the concerns raised in the petition.

The project has received third reading from city council but final approval is contingent on a development permit being issued. The developer has until Nov. 16 to get that done or the zoning approval expires, according to an email from the city.

A rezoning application filed with the city last June showed a tower that covers 1,753 square metres on almost all floors. That is more than twice the size the city is aiming for with other highrises over 12 storeys, which is a maximum of 750 square metres. Only One Water Street, the city’s tallest building at 36 storeys, has a bigger footprint at 770 square metres.

READ MORE: Controversial downtown Kelowna highrise looking to cast widest shadow in town

The $35 million Innovation Centre opened in 2017 with the aid of $6 million from the provincial government, $3.4 million from the federal government and a City of Kelowna lease.

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