Peachland鈥檚 mayor has had enough developers breaking promises to build in the community.
鈥淚鈥檓 a little bit disappointed,鈥� Patrick Van Minsel said at council meeting Tuesday (Mar. 11). 鈥淲e approved a lot of developments in our two years, and a lot of promises were made by developers to build.鈥�
The mayor noted that on several occasions developers have proposed housing projects in the community and after getting a third reading for zoning from council they put the property up for sale.
鈥淭hat is disappointing to me and to this council,鈥� Van Minsel said, pointing out a property that was planned for a townhouse development recently went up for sale.
鈥淚t baffles me because, at the end of the day, they promised 鈥極h no, we鈥檙e gonna build,鈥� and it's up for sale.鈥�
A property at 5971 Princess Street, with Okanagan Lake views, was recently listed on Realtor.ca for $6.75 million. According to the BC Assessment website, that same property was sold for just over $3 million in 2023.
In Nov. 2024, council gave a third reading to rezone the property and the adjacent lot (5698 Princess St.) from low-density residential to multi-unit residential to facilitate the construction of townhomes.
A parcel of land approved for a large apartment complex at 5481 Clements Avenue, next to Peachland Elementary School, was put back on the market in Apr. 2023 for $4.9 million. Council had approved a development permit for an 84-unit building on the site in Feb. 2023. The current price is $3.9 million. It sold in Aug. 2020 for $1.6 million according to BC Assessment.
鈥淎 lot of staff time goes into these projects, and a lot of our time goes into this,鈥� Van Minsel noted. 鈥淚s there something that we can do, or is there something maybe in our process that is too strict to get let them build?鈥�
Council plans to discuss the issue in the coming months.
According to the district鈥檚 Interim Housing Needs Report from Dec. 2024, Peachland needs to build 494 new homes over the next five years, and 1,650 new units in the next 20 years.
