Housing Developments Continue To Densify Penticton

The City of Penticton’s commitment to increasing economic development and attracting housing development by cutting red tape and making things easier for investors and developers is paying huge dividends.

During a presentation to Penticton council Tuesday, director of development services Blake Laven said the second quarter of 2024 saw continued economic development growth.

Streamlining and simplification of the city’s land use bylaws recently has encouraged much more housing and construction in the city, said Laven.

The new regulations provide opportunities for more investment in housing by increasing allowable densities throughout the city and lowering certain development regulations to make design more straightforward and making the process to deliver housing much easier and quicker, he said.

Development activity in the city in the second quarter of 2024 continued the trends established in the first quarter with a significant amount of new housing starts and applications for future projects, he said.

A total of $46.2 million in construction building permits were approved between the beginning of April and end of June, he said.

That increases the year to date construction value to $103 million, with the number of new housing starts in the second quarter at 53 and year to date housing starts at 154, said Laven.

“Those are shovel in the ground, under construction,” he said.

There’s no doubt in his mind that city policy that makes it easier for developers to look at Penticton to do business is largely responsible for all the good work underway over the first six months in Penticton, said Laven.

“There’s lots of work being done from a policy perspective to ensure that we have good regulations to help the economic climate in the community,” he said. “The changes make it easier to develop in Penticton and have already led to increased development and interest in the city, particularly housing development.”

Just like the first quarter, development has continued at a strong and steady pace throughout the second quarter, he said.

“I would say it’s still ahead of projections that we thought we’d see for 2024,” he said. “It’s more closely aligned to our five-year averages than 2023, which was considered a down year.”

Some significant projects underway in the second quarter include the start of the SNFLWR Investment Corporation 26,000 square foot warehouse on Government Street, several new homes on Grandview Street, Cinkant Street townhouse project, renovation work at Walmart on Green Avenue, $6 million in commercial renovations at Walmart and 11 solar panel installations, he said.

Staff are anticipating the development trends seen in the first half of the year to continue, with strong interest in residential construction and projects that have been previously approved by council earlier in the year turning into building permit applications and starts, he said.

In early July, the Urban Development Institute (UDI), out of Kelowna, chartered a bus and visited Penticton and the city showed off many of the projects underway, said Laven.

The tour, attended by 40 development and real estate industry professionals, showcased five different sites in Penticton, offering information and promoting the city as a community that is attractive to developers, he said.

The tour provided exposure to the city from an important development industry business organization, while also highlighting the number of housing initiatives Penticton is currently promoting, said Laven.

“It was a very successful tour and I think it opened a lot of eyes for people who don’t develop outside of that Kelowna environment,” said Laven. “There was a lot of interest in development in Penticton.

“The tour provided important exposure for Penticton and we’re trying to work with UDI administrators and those who came on the tour to help build momentum.”

Working with council’s support, Penticton has become one of the first cities in the province to implement a fully online building permit application system, he said.

“It’s called the Cloud permit, the subscription service that we’ve bought into,” he said. “For the past year, all new residential construction applications for single-family housing, duplexes and townhouses have been processed through Cloud permit.

“By the end of this summer, it will take all of our building permit applications. This will include everything from renovations to our tower development and industrial and commercial buildings.”

This system has notably improved the operation of the building permit department and allowed inspectors to do things in the field they would normally have to return to the office to complete, he said.

It also allows development professionals to deal with city staff in a more efficient manner, he said.

“We’re very much where we want to be when it comes to process timelines,” he said.

The city is updating its five-year economic development plan, first implemented in 2018, and held a workshop in June with business and community leaders represented, said Laven.

The findings of the workshop will be used to help upgrade the economic development strategic plan, he said.

The goal is to have a final draft of the plan in early 2025 for council’s consideration.

The city will continue to work with partners such as the Downtown Penticton Association, chamber of commerce and local homebuilders association, said Laven.

Council unanimously supported a motion to receive Laven’s report for information.

By Keith Lacey

Local Journalism Initiative

Penticton Herald

Kelowna Daily Courier