By ROY WOOD

Oliver council has delayed approval of the Meadows Drive modular home development to ensure they don’t end up creating a “trailer park.”

Rather than give the rezoning bylaw third reading on Monday, council told staff to prepare a covenant that would compel the developer to meet criteria including: concrete foundations; diversity of size and design; and appropriate form and character. The essence of the zoning and Official Community Plan changes involve a switch from multi-family to single-family homes and allowing “modular homes” in the development.

Under current definitions, mobile homes on wheels would be allowable. At a public hearing before the council meeting, proponents and opponents of the development made their cases. Representing the developer, Brad Elenko said there has been no opposition to the development at events organized by the builder and he presented council with 15 letters of support from area residents. Elenko said the developer seeks to “provide quality, low-cost housing.”

Area resident Tom Szalay told the hearing he is opposed to the development partly because higher-density, multi-family housing is a more efficient and environmentally friendly use of the land.
He also expressed concern about the quality of the potential development, fearing that under current wording “flat-roofed double wides would be allowed.” He urged council to ensure that the developer “build(s) what he (has committed) to build and not a trailer park.” Szalay dismissed the developer’s suggestion that there is no demand for multi-family homes as “not a matter of no market; it’s a matter of missed opportunities.” Chief administrative officer Heidi Frank told council that introducing a “form and character” covenant into the process will require another public hearing.

Councillor Jack Bennest lamented the inefficiency of waiting another month for another public hearing and suggested council should have had the covenant prepared ahead of time. “Let’s get better at this,” he said.

The parcel in question sits between Meadows Drive and the Okanagan River Channel and south of Willow Glen. It has sat vacant and in search of a multi-family developer for 25 years. The land was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve in 1980 with the condition that it be developed for multi-family housing. There were two earlier proposals for development – in 1982 and 1996 – but neither proceeded.