UPDATE: Swan Lake residential infill plan public input sought

Attend an information session through Zoom. The meeting ID for all of the sessions is 350 682 5714. You can also access the Zoom sessions by clicking the links below at the time of the event.

The RDNO expects to compile and report on the results in the summer of 2021. Visit the project webpage at www.rdno.ca/infill.

Original:

The ‘Swan Lake Residential Infill Plan’ could result in significant residential growth just outside City of Vernon boundaries.

The plan looking at future development in Regional District of North Okanagan Electoral Areas B and C is ready for public consultation.

A background report on the plan has been presented to the Electoral Area Advisory Committee (EAAC), which looked at ten potential ‘nodes’ (neighbourhoods) which was narrowed to seven that are within the scope of the plan.

“If the potential for those lots is realized, even at a moderate level of development, between 500 and 1,000 new lots could easily be created out of these areas,” Area B Director Bob Fleming told EAAC. “If somewhat more dense development occurs in these areas, it is substantially more than that, it could go quite high.”

Those areas as detailed on the map below include:

RDNO 2 – Greenhow Frontage Road Mixed Use Area
RDNO 3 – North Pleasant Valley Road / L & A Road Residential Neighbourhood
RDNO 4 – North Grey Canal Trail Rural Residential Neighbourhood
RDNO 7 – Herry Road Residential Neighbourhood
RDNO 8 – South portion of the South Swan Lake Mixed Use Area
RDNO 9 – N’Kwala Park Residential Neighbourhood
RDNO 10 – McClure Road Residential Neighbourhood
Swan Lake Residential Infill Plan Map (photo credit: RDNO)

A variety of options will be explored for each neighbourhood, along with the cost of extending sanitary sewer to each area.

“We are basically proposing the no change scenario; modest change which could be secondary suites and some subdivision into an intermediate change, and then the maximum change could be contemplating infill such as tri-plexes, four-plexes, secondary suites and quite a bit smaller lot size,” Regional Planning Projects Manager Laura Frank told EAAC directors.

A lack of sewage disposal has to this point limited growth, which will change when the $37 million ‘North Okanagan Waste Water Recovery Project’ is completed in the next year or two.

“The potential for a community sanitary sewer system to service lands currently serviced by on-site septic systems or holding tanks, inevitably leads to development interests, proposals and pressures for new development not previously possible utilizing on-site septic disposal systems,” RDNO planner Marnie Skobalski stated in the backgrounder.

The potential for new development and land use change within the initial phase of the wastewater system was addressed in the ‘Swan Lake Commercial Area and Neighbourhood Plan,’ which was adopted as part of the Electoral Areas B and C Official Community Plan in 2018.

All the areas identified in the report are already within the Greater Vernon Water boundaries.

“This is not just a little thing, this is all non-ALR (Agriculture Land Reserve) land. There is quite a large potential for residential development, which we know is a real problem in our area, and adding this much land close to urban core development, I think is a real positive,” Fleming remarked.

The report has been sent to adjacent municipalities, First Nations, and other relevant agencies for feedback.

Residents in the affected areas will be able to fill out an online survey or a paper survey with return postage. The survey will be open through June 15, 2021.

A virtual open house is planned. It will be advertised, put on social media and a news release will be issued.

The full 21 page background report including individual neighbourhood scenarios is available to view at this link.

by Kevin Rothwell

UPDATE: Swan Lake residential infill plan public input sought

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