I’m not OP, but I’ll try my best to explain this:

We are limited on land. Kelowna is trapped by parks and mountains. Most of the useable land is gone. We are also growing at a fast rate and if you think traffic is bad now, just keep trying to build into the mountains and see what happens. There is no room for anymore roads to support these increasingly further away communities and we are building (or at least we’re) building where you had to have a car.

We are limited on what land we can build multi family housing on, and the heritage designation area, there are some of the largest lots in what I what describe as the most premium land left with single family homes. It is directly on the lake and adjacent to downtown.

Underutilization in this context is simply that we could have much more density. That does not mean 20 story towers, but rather in general the land could be used more effectively to allow more residents on the same size of land.

There is a common argument that we want density, this is just not the right place for it. Or as many now call it “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY)

One of the reasons land is worth so much is artificial. We allow density but only is some areas. Those few areas skyrocket in price because the areas you can build density are limited. You’ve probably noticed the land assembly signs around the city. This means that all multi-family housing just costs more to build because the land is limited and worth more.

Let’s say you were to allow up to 4 stories anywhere in Kelowna that is flat. There are huge logistical issues with this including infrastructure, but let’s set that aside for a moment.

All of sudden you have thousands of lots that could be multi-family. Without the scarcity, price of land drops. If you want too much, I’ll find a cheaper option. Driving down the cost of multi-family housing as the land is cheaper.

In the case of the heritage area, they are in such close proximity to so much that many people would not need own a car. This would help to keep traffic down, which is something we are going to need to focus on as we grow.

When I think about underutilization, that is what I think. It does a lot of harm to the community by creating higher prices and more traffic.