Safe city, affordable housing: Council outlines priorities
Kelowna city council has endorsed its priorities for the next four years which include six priority areas and 22 actions to increase citizens’ quality of life.
The priorities include strategies to deal with issues like crime and safety, affordable housing and the environment.
The approach is designed to take immediate action on what is important to residents and guide the city’s business planning and investment decisions.
“During the election last fall, citizens told us directly what is important to them and Council’s priorities are a direct response to what we heard,” Mayor Tom Dyas said. “Citizens want a safe city where they can rent or purchase a place to call home. They want to protect Kelowna’s incredible natural environment and they want to be able to move between point A and B more easily.”
Here are council’s priorities:
Crime & Safety
- Develop a strategy to address property crime, including break-and-enters and theft
- Provide local Business Improvement Areas support for urban centre safety issues
- Develop a safety task force with stakeholders
- Partner with provincial mental health and substance-use ministries to improve local conditions
Affordable Housing
- Acquire city-owned land to build affordable housing
- Increase number of rental units with below-market rents
- Partner on the creation of a low-cost affordable housing pilot project
Homelessness
- Advocate for additional complex care centres
- Explore partnership opportunities for alternative forms of sheltering
- Advocate for purpose-built permanent shelter with wrap-around supports and graduated-needs housing options
- Develop an emergency winter shelter program
Transportation
- Explore alternative modes of transportation between UBCO/YLW and downtown
- Improve transit service including expanding the transit pass program
- Improve traffic flow and capacity on major road networks
- Complete the functional design of the Hwy 33 multi-modal traffic corridor
- Enhance traffic safety presence
Agriculture
- Facilitate the creation of a permanent home for the farmer’s market
- Review the Agriculture Plan with respect to secondary uses
- Expand enforcement/bylaw officers
Climate and Environment
- Include climate lens in decision making to assess mitigation and adaptation
- Increase urban tree canopy
- Pilot an energy concierge program to enable retrofits in buildings
City council will monitor the progress of the priorities with formal reviews and evaluations every six, 12 and 18 months.
“We are not afraid to try new things and will actively monitor the progress and adjust as needed to ensure we are delivering the results our citizens want,” Dyas added. “Progress reporting and citizen input is an important part of council’s ongoing efforts to ensure we continually focus on the things that are important to our citizens.”
The full Council Priorities 2023–2026 document outlining support actions is available online at kelowna.ca/councilpriorities.