Updated Official Community Plan adopted

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023

After a three-year community visioning and OCP update initiative, which included extensive public consultation, Council has adopted the updated Official Community Plan (OCP).

“Building on the award-winning Community Vision, West Kelowna Council has adopted an updated Official Community Plan that sets out a path for welcoming and accommodating more than 12,000 new residents by 2040 and makes West Kelowna truly the place to be,” says Mayor Gord Milsom. “Ongoing growth provides both opportunities and challenges and this updated OCP will provide our community with a thoughtful and balanced way forward for the next 20 years.”

“We are grateful for our community’s participation throughout the process and for their feedback as we move forward. West Kelowna residents and businesses can be proud of this plan and take true ownership in it because their ideas have been valued and their input has been included at each step along the way.”

The update to West Kelowna’s Official Community Plan began in Spring 2021 after Council approved the Community Vision – a grassroots expression of what values and wishes for the future are most important to our community. The following OCP update involved three phases, with each phase including public consultation. This feedback resulted in the creation of an updated OCP that:

• Establishes a growth boundary with the goal of creating a more complete, compact, and connected community.
• Concentrates denser, mixed-use development within two urban centres – Westbank and Boucherie – and five neighbourhood centres – Rose Valley, Smith Creek and Shannon Lake, Lakeview Heights, Goats Peak, and Gellatly Village.
• Supports infill housing to create a greater degree of affordable and attainable dwelling types.
• Promotes more economic and industrial opportunities in the West Kelowna Business Park.
• Supports the creation of corporate and community climate action plans.

View the OCP, its goals and objectives, land use designations, maps and more at OurWK.ca/OCP.

With the updated Official Community Plan now adopted, staff will continue to work together with the public, stakeholders, and Council to update those policies and bylaws that the OCP guides including the Zoning, Works and Services, Development Application Procedures, and Ticket Information Utilization Bylaws. Stay up to date on these initiatives by signing up to receive City news and alerts directly to your inbox at westkelownacity.ca/subscribe.

Any development permit applications received prior to the adoption of the updated OCP will be processed in accordance with the regulation and policies in effect at the time that the City received them. All zoning amendment applications must conform to the current OCP at time of adoption regardless of the date of application.