Council has decided to move forward with a large townhouse complex proposed along Peanut Pond. As shown in this drawing provided to council, the development will include 47 units, 14 with basement suites.
By Vanessa Broadbent
Osoyoos Times
A proposed residential development project adjacent to Peanut Pond received support from council this week.
A decision to grant third reading to a rezoning amendment bylaw and an amendment to the Official Community Plan, giving support to the development, was made at a special meeting hosted immediately following a public hearing on Dec. 17.
The townhome complex, proposed by Fraser Valley company Precision Building Design, will include 47 units, 14 with basement suites, on two vacant plots at 9110 and 9120 Main Street.
However, residents would not have access to Main Street directly from the townhomes, and instead have to use Vedette Drive, one of the main concerns brought to council at the public hearing.
Those living on Vedette Drive are already facing a shortage of parking, resident Kevin Flemming told council.
He predicted that most of the development’s traffic would likely use Valiant Lane, which leads to Lakeview Plaza, and cut through the parking lot to get to the highway.
“I don’t have a problem with the development, it just seems unreasonable to me that you can develop this property and have no access to Highway 3 other than Vedette Drive and Valiant lane,” he said.
In a letter to council, Vedette Drive resident Birgit Arnstein said that the road is not “simply a small access road for the residents,” but has a high amount of traffic because others in the area use it as well.
“I have concerns about the corner of Vedette and Valiant Lane as vehicles rarely stop at the stop sign while people driving into Valiant Lane enter it too quickly,” she said.
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However, Gina MacKay, director of planning and development services, said the Ministry of Transportation is adamant that no access to Highway 3 will be granted.
“They were actually not super keen on the emergency access, but I insisted that we needed to have a secondary access for emergency service vehicles only, and for pedestrians.”
Several other residents called for a traffic study to be completed. One was done for a previously proposed development which included commercial space, a public roadway and over 200 residential units. The study also showed access to Highway 3.
“All of the sudden there’s going to be a hundred plus people living on Peanut Pond,” resident Jane Slater said. “To put 100 people on Peanut Pond, I think that we need to get a lot more information about that.”
Slater said that the existing traffic study is “moot” because it includes access to Highway 3.
However, MacKay said the Ministry of Transportation denied that it would have granted the access, and that given the decrease of over 75 per cent in the amount of residential units, another study was not required. She also noted that the ministry is required to sign off on the bylaw after third reading.
Other residents, including Michael Ryan, questioned the intention to construct a trail around Peanut Pond. Currently, a future pedestrian trail is proposed along the edge of the pond.
“The idea of having a trail is a good one; not developing it and waiting to a future redevelopment of the trailer park is not wise,” Ryan said. “I don’t have 20 years to wait to take that walk along Peanut Pond.”
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However, constructing the trail would not be possible unless the nearby mobile home park, also adjacent to the pond, is redeveloped.
MacKay assured worried residents of the mobile home park that there are no plans to redevelop the park, and won’t be unless its owner decides to sell the property.
However, a smaller trail could be constructed that would connect Vedette Drive with the downtown and go behind the park.
Osoyoos resident Peter Hastings voiced his support for the project and stressed the need for it.
“I’m all for this development; one of the reasons is I’d like to live there,” he said. “I’ve been looking for some time, and I know a lot of people who have, for a facility of this nature so we can downsize from where we live now and Osoyoos is not offering this.”
“If we don’t start developing this kind of thing, we’re going to lose an awful lot of people who would like to come here but have to compromise and go further north.”
After the public hearing concluded, council immediately held a special open meeting to discuss the rezoning bylaw.
Councillor Brian Harvey motioned to defer third reading and complete a traffic study.
“After hearing comments, I have to agree that relying on a previous traffic study … is moot and we ought to request another one before going to third reading,” he said.
However, his motion was out voted and the rest of council voted to give third reading to both the Official Community Plan amendment and the zoning amendment bylaw.
Councillor C.J. Rhodes said that completing another traffic study would likely just reiterate that access to Highway 3 is not a possibility, and the predicted traffic congestion on Vedette Drive and Valiant Lane is an internal issue the town will need to address.
“They are serious and we need to come up with a plan that works with everyone; there has to be some way of mitigating and making that better,” he said. “I don’t think the traffic study is a serious enough thing to hold up our progress with this right now.”
