District moves to revitalize downtown neighbourhood
West Kelowna, BC
LAND USE
Westbank Centre Revitalization Plan
To revive a downtown drained of stores and shoppers by malls on the highway that has skirted the community since 1990, the district of West Kelowna drafted a 25-year plan to remake the central Westbank Centre neighbourhood as a pedestrian-friendly place to live, work and play.
The plan grew out of a series of public meetings and calls for a mix of higher density housing, niche retail stores, sidewalk cafes and a farmers' market. It would limit traffic through downtown while encouraging transit use and create cycling paths linking the area to trails around Okanagan Lake and the Glen Canyon Regional Park. It urges governments to locate a library and a health-care centre in the neighbourhood.
As a first step, council approved $250,000 for benches, planters, lights and other Westbank Centre street improvements.
Results
| Environmental | Economic | Social |
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Challenges
- Allocating staff to the project in competition with other planning exercises.
- Finding time to consider feasibility of final recommendations.
- Producing an illustrated brochure free of planning jargon to promote the plan to merchants and developers.
Lessons learned
- Involve staff from all departments to ensure that project recommendations support other civic plans and priorities.
- Events combining multiple planning exercises attract wider public participation and make more efficient use of staff.
- Digital modeling makes complex traffic-change proposals easier to comprehend.
Partners and Collaborators
Project Contact
Nancy Henderson
Director of Development Services
District of West Kelowna, BC
T. 778-797-8833
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