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Consideration for a development permit for a 35-storey building on St. Paul Street is on the agenda for this month’s public hearing.
On Tuesday, Oct. 17, Kelowna council will consider issuing the development permit (DP) and development variance permits (DVP) for the mixed-use building.
The 35-storey building, which has been dubbed One Varsity, is being proposed for 1405 St. Paul Street, which is across the street from the future UBCO downtown campus tower.
The property was rezoned in May 2022.
The building will have 342 residential units and a 1,530 square metre grocery store and other retail units on the ground floor.
According to the staff report, the building will have a five storey podium, which raised some concerns.
“Although the five-level podium meets Zoning Bylaw Regulations, it is contrary to OCP Design Guidelines,” the report says.
“The podium is not context sensitive to other nearby developments such as the UBC Tower under construction at 550 Doyle Ave which does not have a parking podium as it accommodates all required parking underground, or The Brooklyn at 1471 St Paul St which has a podium that is only 12.5 m in height along St Paul St and rises to 16.0 m in height along the lane.”
Staff explain that Official Community Plan guidelines for podiums in this area of town requires a maximum height of four storeys and if the podium is on a corner, developers should “vary the height and form of the podium to respect and respond to the height and scale of the existing context on adjacent streets.”
Staff do point out that the building will include a public plaza at the corner of St. Paul Street and Doyle Avenue, similar to the future UBCO tower.
There are variances to long term bike parking and the size of floor plates of this proposed building.
A variance is requested for level six to increase the floor plate size from 750 square metres to 1,000 square metres to “accommodate a larger indoor common amenity area.”
When council okayed the rezoning for this property in 2022, they were told amenities would include a “bike lounge”, a pool, gym and yoga centre.
The second variance is for levels seven to 12, which is to slightly increase the floor plate size to 769 square metres.
As for the bicycle parking, the developer is looking to reduce the distance between vertical bike stalls and only include vertical stalls. The city requires 50% of long term bike parking stalls to be horizontal.
There will be 349 parking stalls with an in-lieu payment of $299,128 for eight stalls that will not be provided.
The developer is also making a $700,000 payment to the city’s Housing Opportunities Reserve Fund “in exchange for additional height” while also providing “affordable, supportive and/or rental” units.
Although staff have identified several areas of concern with this project, they are recommending city council approve issuing the DP and DVP.
Due to the variances on the project, anyone who thinks they will be impacted by them will be invited to address council during the Oct. 17 meeting, which starts at 4 pm.
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