Kelowna city council has rejected a plan to build 82 homes on a vacant piece of land in Kettle Valley originally slated for a future school.
The 5.7 hectare property, in the middle of the residential development at the south end of the city, was never sold to the school district but was earmarked from the earliest days of the development as the site of a future school. Over the years it became considered parkland by Kettle Valley residents.
But after the school district turned its attention to a future school site in the nearby Ponds area, the developers of Kettle Valley announced plans to build more houses on the vacant land. But to do so, it required rezoning the property from the existing institutional designation to residential.
Following a public hearing on the proposal at Kelowna City Hall earlier this week, council rejected the plan in a 6-2 vote.
The proposal had prompted many Kettle Valley residents to sign a petition opposing the development, and calling on the city to keep the land as a park.
The proposal was considered to include too much housing by some on council, even though the plan called for part of the property to be left vacant and added to an existing park now located just to the south of the property. Also, a soccer field now on the land was to be relocated to the park extension.
Some councillors at the public haring indicated they may be more supportive of a lesser level of development for the land in future.