Article 2 - Growth Pressures

This article is intended to provoke thought and discussion prior to the Smart Growth workshop on 25th January

Summerland is facing physical growth pressures (which doesn’t necessarily mean economic growth – more on this later) like never before. These pressures will continue into the forseeable future. What is driving this pressure for new subdivisions, new condos? Lots of factors have come together in an unprecedented way. Here are some of them.

• Kelowna has grown very rapidly and is predicted to double in size again in 20 years. Folk who retired to Kelowna several years ago, thinking they were moving to a relatively small, peaceful city, now find Kelowna too big for them and they are looking for a smaller town to move to.
• The 4 laning of Highway 97 will make Summerland much more accessible to Kelowna.
• As Kelowna grows, and travel times within the city get longer and longer, a 35 minute commute along a 4 lane highway doesn't look bad.
• The Coquihalla connector has made the Okanagan seem much closer to the lower mainland (just look at the recent growth in Westbank!)
• The great success of the wine industry has brought a more affluent class of tourist to the Okanagan. Lots of them see it as an attractive place to live, or to have a holiday home.
• The boom in oil prices has created a lot of very wealthy people in Alberta and in parts of BC. Those are the folk who buy second and third homes. They see the Okanagan as a great place to have a holiday home.
• The explosive growth of lower mainland communities will continue, in part due to the 2010 Olympics. This will create more escapees looking for a quieter lifestyle.
• Kelowna has grown into a mid-size city, and now provides shopping and other facilities to match those in the lower mainland. One traditional reason for not moving to the Okanagan has disappeared.
• The internet and communications revolution allows many folk to work from home. Commuting to an office building is a dying concept.
• Some of our realtors are promoting Summerland in far away places like California. A new breed of buyer is being added to the traditional list.
  

What does this all mean? It means opportunity and it means risk. We can "sieze the brass ring" by setting very high design standards, raising development cost charges to truly cover the long term costs of development, and picking and choosing the type of development we want (and how much development we want). Or we can say "full steam ahead and damn the torpedos" as Kelowna and Westbank did.