Image: Contributed
The old Academy Ridge.
Image: Contributed
The new Academy Ridge.
Watermark Developments is ready to give it another go.
Kelowna city council in January told the development company to come back with a more exciting look for its planned 154-unit row-housing project, named Academy Ridge, just south of University of British Columbia Okanagan.
City planner Terry Barton wanted to see better form and character, and therefore recommended council defer the development application. Council members agreed.
“I think I would have liked to see a little more variety on roof heights or architectural mix, because it looks like 156 identical units,” Coun. Luke Stack said during the Jan. 7 council meeting. “It does seem a little overwhelming to see that many look all the same. It is getting to the point where, maybe as a council, we need to stop and say we do need a little more creativity up here. We want a neighbourhood that attracts people.”
Watermark Developments went back to the drawing board and is back on the agenda for Monday’s council meeting. The renderings it re-submitted have more colour and detail than the ones it presented in January, and this time the city’s community planning department wrote in its report that it supports the overall proposed development.
The report that will go before council said Watermark used “bold colours” and added parapets—an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure—to accent key building areas like entrances and intersections.
The report said the proposal is also in alignment with the University Village Master Plan and helps to address the “missing middle” housing type.
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