Council will be asked to consider an Official Community Plan change for housing and medical office development in Penticton that staff are calling ‘the most significant development ever proposed’.
Staff will present a report on the project, titled the ‘Penticton Health and Innovation District’ by the developer at Tuesday’s council meeting for consideration.
The building plans envision a community hub located at 1704 Government Street for residential, retail and live-work housing for staff at Penticton Regional Hospital.
The property is located across Government Street from the PRH and has been used as an industrial property. It was recently used for manufactured home and trailer operations.
“A Council priority is the creation of attainable and affordable housing and this proposal would increase Penticton’s housing stock significantly,” Blake Laven, the City of Penticton’s director of development services said in the news release. “The next step, if council supports it, is a public engagement process on the proposed OCP change.”
If approved, the proposal would allow the building of between 1,200 and 1,500 multifamily apartments, split between strata and rental tenures.
The building includes plans for retail and office spaces, which estimates 200 jobs on the site at full build-out.
The city said given the scale of the development, it would be built in phases over several years.
The application is to change the OCP future land use designation for 1704 Government Street from “Industrial” to “Mixed Use” to facilitate the proposed development.
The city added that the proposal is in its early stages, and more details will be refined through future applications including rezoning, subdivision, and development permit.
Dates, times and locations for planned engagement events will be advertised following council’s direction to proceed with the public engagement for this proposed development after their decision on Tuesday.