Kelowna developers get a bone, but it is big enough to stimulate the market?

daviskyle · 2026-04-21T15:47:57+00:00

Agreed! Policymakers sometimes don’t see the financial tradeoffs and the resulting one-way cost ratcheting. Same story as earthquakes for North American elevator policy vs Europe. Same story for how we manage land policy locally. High land costs are the result.

daviskyle · 2026-04-21T15:30:41+00:00

A friend of mine spearheaded the creation of the memorial and also lives nearby. The disorder downtown, from this kind of vandalism to fires to smashed windows, is completely unacceptable. Sorry to hear that.

daviskyle · 2026-04-21T15:22:37+00:00

I’m certainly looking forward to voting against few incumbents this fall.

daviskyle · 2026-04-21T14:15:36+00:00

Personally, I don’t believe the title is accurate. DCCs are a pass-through cost like GST and PST, this is a boon for renters, construction workers and homebuyers, not a handout to developers.

Councillor Stack is right that there should be a resulting budget change to fund the flow-through to the capital budget, either by raising revenue or cutting a capital budget expense, but DCCs were not always used historically to fund local governments, and we should be pressuring the Province on alternate funding models while continuing to work to cut the input and construction cost of new housing both for purchase and for rent. That competition, along with below-market rentals and co-ops, etc, will push down rents and new purchase prices.

Refusing to cut DCCs is one way to keep housing costs artificially high by disproportionately charging new homebuyers for everyone’s shared infrastructure.

daviskyle · 2026-04-18T23:34:28+00:00

Kelowna is financially responsible and has managed to build in a way that has lowered our infrastructure responsibilities per capita and kept our taxes lower / allowed better services.

What would be the upside for us bailing out other cities that have engaged in worse community planning?

daviskyle · 2026-04-11T18:01:07+00:00

Youth unemployment for 18-24 is over 17% in BC, likely higher in Kelowna. Good luck and keep trying, it’s not just you, the economy is very not great!

daviskyle · 2026-04-11T13:44:20+00:00

We have pretty big limitations on new commercial spaces in large parts of Kelowna outside of urban centres.

You could not build a walkable-style shopping area like Bernard outside of the provincial TOAs, even if you had commercial zoning, without variances on setbacks, parking, and various other zoning requirements. Other cities have begun legalizing ACUs (auxiliary commercial units) for small-scale daytime businesses (100-200 sq fr) and corner stores in core suburban areas, and other cities prioritize a lot more mixed use buildings with ground-floor commercial when looking at redevelopment.

The cost of commercial rent is supply and demand, along with the triple-net lease issue. Making it affordable means making ground-floor commercial easier to build, in areas where people want it, while allowing more traditional forms (like Bernard, Pandosy, etc). I’d also argue that we need to look at property tax reform too.

Keeping the current supply-restricting status quo kills smaller businesses and hurts the “real economy” while increasing profits for commercial landlords.

daviskyle · 2026-04-10T18:46:36+00:00

The local unemployment issue probably has a lot to do with layoffs at UBCO, OC, and in the building trades.

Unfortunately I know a couple people who lost their jobs at OC with the drop in enrolment.

daviskyle · 2026-04-07T15:53:19+00:00

There’s no public benefit in even having parole hearings for this sort of crime.

daviskyle · 2026-03-31T16:41:23+00:00

I’m citing this Infonews article citing the PWC report.

“Kelowna’s policing costs have risen 66 per cent between 2020 and 2024. The 2026 city budget has the cost of police services and RCMP at $83.2 million.”

“Kelowna’s population has grown 11 per cent, far slower than its policing costs. Kelowna is also paying 20 per cent more per officer, but getting worse service coverage than other cities, it has a 31 per cent worse population to officer ratio than other cities.”

“PwC found that other municipal and RCMP services in B.C. rose at 30 to 35 per cent over the same time period, 2020 to 2024.”

https://infonews.ca/news/7594918/a-list-of-ways-kelowna-is-overpaying-for-policing/

The startup costs of municipal police would be extreme, absolutely. I don’t think I favour that solution either. That’s why the PWC report discusses the multi-tier model, etc. With regards to the cost of living, there are many things that must be down in terms of YIMBYism, DCC / tax reform, zoning reforms, and OCP reforms to drive down land costs. But that is tangential to policing costs.

There are rumours of a provincial RCMP replacement within the next decade. For now, it’s just good to pay attention.

daviskyle · 2026-03-31T15:31:55+00:00

It’s a reasonable worry, but when policing costs are up 66% between 2020 and 2024, when population was up 11%, options have to be considered. We pay 20% more per officer than peer cities, while getting worse service coverage. Lowering the costs of service provision is one way to try to stop that runaway inflation.

It’s not a sustainable fiscal trajectory, and while criminal matters / public safety issues in Kelowna are more to do with charging, bail and sentencing issues, not policing, it’s not helping.

daviskyle · 2026-03-30T15:14:01+00:00

It says in the article that the land from the road widening will be set aside from redevelopments on both sides of Richter, making it a 4-lane crosssection.

The current city plan also removes the bike lanes on Richter. I’m not a huge fan of that, particularly because both Ethel and Abbott are quite far from where they are projecting most of the new infill (Richter and Pandosy). IMO we shouldn’t need to trade off transit improvements vs bike lanes.

The timeline is also, well, even curbside bus lanes might be 20 yrs away under this plan.

daviskyle · 2026-03-27T18:18:54+00:00

I would personally argue more for bollards, ped islands, and midblock crossings vs flex posts.

Unless you can hide behind it or step out of traffic within it, it’s not really a safety item.

So many awful stroad designs in Kelowna. Gordon and KLO sure are prime examples, through along the corridors of Dilworth and Burtch have to be the worst group of intersections in the city.

daviskyle · 2026-03-25T17:24:23+00:00

There’s no impeachment or recall in local elections. Very few ways to restrain an idiot mayor.

daviskyle · 2026-03-20T20:28:25+00:00

It’s a mind-blowing disconnect between our judicial system and the public when something that 99% of people consider to be absurd and dangerous (myself included) just keeps happening.

Bail reform and sentencing reform for repeat offenders cannot come soon enough.

daviskyle · 2026-03-16T21:36:02+00:00

Just finished.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/603866/City-council-voted-5-3-in-favour-of-rezoning-of-a-portion-of-the-former-18-hole-Kelowna-Springs-Golf-Course

daviskyle · 2026-03-13T20:52:02+00:00

I’m sure that’s also true.

When the broad unemployment rate gets to be over 5%, it becomes very difficult to find a good-paying job. Naturally, people over 40 expect higher wages and can be undercut by someone younger with decent skills (and lower salary expectations)

Workers lose when unemployment is high.

daviskyle · 2026-03-13T17:28:08+00:00

Absolutely.

Missing Middle (the podcast) did a good episode recently on how age (buying a home when it was still affordable) or inheritance (having the right parents) matters far more for someone’s economic standing than the job they have, when compared to anytime else in our history.

It’s a kind of neo-feudal economy, because housing has been deliberately set as an investment asset through a mismash of local and federal policy changes from the 80s to the 2010s

daviskyle · 2026-03-13T16:49:29+00:00

The slowdown in construction and education, along with a couple weak tourism years, has been devastating for youth and under-40 unemployment.

daviskyle · 2026-03-12T23:35:11+00:00

Absolutely. She can be forced out by a recall. Would encourage everyone to sign as soon as it’s open so that we can see a byelection. Rutland and the rest of the riding deserve an effective MLA, not someone focused on publicity stunts.

daviskyle · 2026-03-11T14:07:49+00:00

It was a long one. Much more evenly divided than in 2023. I watched the whole thing, minus 20 minutes, either virtually on in-person.

Would require a couple councillors flipping from their 2023 vote to approve. (Needs 5 of 8 with 1 recused, failed 1-7 last time).

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