Peachland addresses height controversy along its waterfront – Okanagan | Globalnews.ca

The small, lakeside community of Peachland has a height restriction for new developments along a nearly three-kilometre stretch of its waterfront.

This week, town council approved the CR3 zone, which restricts building heights to three storeys along Beach Avenue between 8th Street and the former Todd’s Campground.

“If you build too high in the frontage, you also restrict building in the back because you have to go even higher in the back. So future-wise, this is a wise decision,” said Peachland mayor Patrick Van Minsel.

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The catalyst for the new zoning category dates back to 2018, when town council approved a five-storey building on the corner of Beach Avenue and 4th Street.

While the developer eventually abandoned the project due to financial reasons, the five-storey approval created a lot of controversy at the time.

“There was a huge outcry from our constituents. I think there were 800, 900 of them coming out and saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want this,’” said Van Minsel.

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Many Peachland residents support the new zoning category and its height restrictions.

“I think that’s a great idea because it kind of preserves the landscape of the town and still allows everybody to enjoy the views and stuff like that,” said resident Dan Mizolek.

“People come here because of the views, and so you don’t want to have anything obstructing that,” said resident Arthetta Fleck.

The new zone was also designed to encourage more mixed commercial-residential buildings on existing empty lots or lots where houses will eventually be torn down.

Peachland’s mayor points to the three-storey building that houses the well-known Bliss Bakery as the vision for new developments.

“Vibrancy is very important, Van Minsel said.

“So this zone is a mixed zone of residential and commercial, where you can put commercial on the bottom. We prefer that and it could be even doctors, it could be physiotherapists, it could go to retail.”

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Carole Costa has owned Deja Vu Home store next to Bliss for 18 years and wants to see more mixed commercial-residential developments spread out along the waterfront.

“What has happened so far is downtown is downtown and then we’ve got this area,” Costa said.

“So if we make it coherent all the way down, it just brings everybody so it’s not so clustered down in that area. It just brings people to the whole town of Peachland.”

Van Minsel said each development proposal will be looked at on an individual basis.

The mayor added that he’s looking forward to the first applicant coming forward.

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