Plans to build a 180 unit, three-building project at 2550 Ord Road have cleared a public hearing, despite some opposition from residents and organizations, who were concerned about the impacts to rattlesnakes and big horn sheep in the area.

The developers were seeking to rezone the nearly two hectare plot of land near the intersection of Ord and Tranquille from A1 agricultural to RM4 multi-family residential, which would enable the development to move ahead.

They plan to spread the 180 units over three buildings comprising of 36, 48, and 96 units respectively.

Chris McNeil, who was speaking for the developer, said the application has been 10 months in the making, compared to a “typical” zoning application that he said takes between three and four months.

“We’ve taken our time with this. We’ve worked with city planners. At this time, we have eight consultants that we’ve worked with to produce studies,” McNeil said at a public hearing. “Its been a process but we’ve done it to ensure we can create a product that does make sense.”

“We’ve looked at ways to develop the property that will have a minimal impact on the environment and the surrounding wilderness area. We don’t want to develop the land as an agricultural land because we think housing is a better use.”

McNeil says a geotechnical review of the site has determined that half of it can be developed “without any special measures” while another 26 per cent – the adjacent cliffs – are not suitable for any kind of development.

“There is no intention to blast out those cliffs and create more space,” McNeil said. “There has been some concerns in the community…the intent is to work with the topography that is there, and not remove the cliffs.”

A number of people and organizations wrote letters and spoke at the public hearing Tuesday to say they are concerned about the impacts to wildlife if the development is allowed to move forward.

“I think they bought it agriculture land, and it should be developed as agriculture land because that sort of development is much more conducive to wildlife than putting 200 people in this area,” Jesse Ritcey, a Program Manager with the Kamloops Naturalist Club, said.

“When habitat shrinks, wildlife population shrink. The valley bottom land is almost all gone in the Interior, so I think we really need to work on protecting what is left.”

Mike Dedels, the Executive Director of the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC, also told council that grasslands in province have been impacted by development for years.

“If this was old growth forest being cut down, there would probably be people chaining themselves to it, but because its just grasslands and easy to develop, people don’t tend to talk a lot about it,” Dedels said.

Councillors split on vote to approve rezoning

In a 6-3 vote, City Council voted to approve the rezoning of the land, clearing the way for the development permit process to get underway.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly was among the six people who voted in favour as he believed the location of the development means it will be under intense scrutiny as it progresses.

“Its a difficult conversation and obviously we’ve talked a lot about the wildfire and that pieces as has been said by the proponent hasn’t been fully solved yet,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly also said other areas in Kamloops -Sahali, Aberdeen, Dufferin, Sun Rivers, and Rose Hill – were all developed on grasslands.

“I’m not sure what Kamloops could look like if we didn’t have [those neighbourhoods],” O’Reilly added. “All these areas were grasslands and habitat to other species of animals but what we do hear on a daily basis is rental affordability, rental vacancy, bus service, these are things that we need.”

He also said the property was suited for a housing development as it was within a kilometre of the rebuilt Parkcrest Elementary School.

“Gone are the days of finding two acre parcels for development within one kilometre of an elementary school in Kamloops,” O’Reilly said. “These sites are harder and harder to come by.”

“This isn’t a protected area. It’s up against a protected area, and I believe this is the right thing for Kamloops. I believe through our staff and through the processes that are in place, this will be a sensitive development for the area.”

Councillor Margot Middleton also spoke in the favour of the rezoning.

“I think that the housing needs trump the nature side of things. Its not viable agricultural land,” Middleton said. “You know we could zone it commercial and that wouldn’t have as big an impact but I think the need is for housing.”

Councillor Nancy Bepple was opposed to the rezoning, saying she felt the city’s policies around environmentally sensitive areas were “incredibly weak.”

“All we’ve asked for is a wildlife impact assessment which the proponent themselves have said is not really that thorough,” Bepple said. “When you look at the wildlife impact assessment that the city has, it simply says to have a wildlife impact assessment. It doesn’t give any direction in terms of the city being willing to set aside critical habitat, to preserving critical habitat, or requiring monitoring of habitat once something has happened

“I would be willing to consider this application in the future, if we could come up with something more meaningful than simply stating that a wildlife impact assessment needs to be done,” Bepple added.

“It does not have enough information for me to feel like there is anything that is going to be mitigated or preserved based on the application.”

Councillor Dale Bass also said she agreed with suggestions that were raised by Bepple.

“What I see here is densification of a hunk of land and we believe in densification because its part of our climate action plan and we’re going to put densification next to an area where many concerns have been expresses that we may be endangering part of nature,” Bass said. “I have difficulty reconciling worrying about the climate but not worrying about the animals.”

“I’d like to see us talk about that at some point within a committee to reconciles some of our policies.”

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was also opposed to the plan, saying he was concerned about the lack of sidewalks and street lights in the area.

“It’s a very narrow road, and I don’t believe there is much lighting,” he said, noting people would have to walk to the nearby dog park or to Parkcrest Elementary, and asked staff if there were upgrades to roads and sidewalks planned.

“In our 2018 Transportation Master Plan, there is a painted pedestrian shoulder and a painted bike lane along Ord Road,” Transportation Engineer Spencer Behn responded. “There is an Active Transportation master plan update in process and we don’t want to speculate on what those facilities would be upgraded to.”

“We don’t have a current year when the existing painted facilities would be in place.”

At this time, its not clear when or how the housing project will move forward, though Kamloops City Staff have said that some of the issues around wildlife are expected to be addressed during the development permit process.

“There were no covenants on the property so they would basically come forward with a development permit application to staff,” the City’s Development Director Marvin Kwiatkowski said, of the next steps. “Minor variances, we can do it internally but if there is something major then we may have to go back to council and the development permit would come with it.”

“There wouldn’t be a public hearing on a development permit alone, its just on zoning, so the public process is done.”