The March 10, 2026 Public Hearing on the application to industrialize half of Kelowna Springs Golf course (KSGC), was a smorgasbord of misrepresentation from the city right from the start to build the argument that this is a good project.
1.The Planner started by stating Kelowna Springs Golf Course is surrounded by a mixture of industrial and agricultural uses. This implies these uses occur here and there around the golf course. Not so: 85% of the golf course is surrounded by the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) and only one area, the southwest corner representing 10%, is touched by industrial land.
2. The Planner stated that KSGC is located in “the Gateway” growth district which he says means this area is generally suitable for urban uses including commercial or industrial? What about agriculture? All the land between the airport and KSGC and south of KSGC is in the ALR. The Gateway generally includes the industrial park by the airport, the airport, and UBCO. The Planner put up a slide that discusses the Gateway area separately from the Reids Corner area. This means that KSGC is not in the Gateway area.
3. The Planner stated the property is accessed from Penno Road and Hereron Road. However, Hereron Road does not currently exist. It is an undeveloped road ROW on the property to the north that is owned by someone else.
4. This plan is to industrialize 22 hectares of land. The issue is that there are currently 522 hectares of vacant industrial land in Kelowna. However, the planner stated that there are issues with some of the 522 hectares such as limited access, challenging topography, and environmental values that may limit their development potential. This describes Kelowna Springs. It has serious environmental issues and no current access. The Planner states that city studies show that the property is subject to flooding. It is the last place to put industrial use, yet this is the justification to put this development on KSGC?
5. The concern is the flooding of downstream infrastructure and the surrounding agricultural land with the backfilling of the land. The concept is to construct detention ponds to handle the water. However, the Planner stated these detention ponds will be turned over to the city and as was stated later, the liability for any flooding will be the responsibility of the city, i.e., the citizens of Kelowna. This means the citizens will be responsible for any flooding issues and impacts related to the industrial park. The Mayor and supporting councillors are putting the citizens at risk for future damage and flooding costs due to the developer’s project.
6. The Planner justified this project using the policy from the 2022 OCP “to support continued development of industrial land” even though there are 522 hectares of surplus vacant industrial land. He left out the policies to protect ALR land and environment, such as Objective 14.5. “Protect and restore environmentally sensitive areas from development impacts.” This is selective information – not complete information.
7. The developer talked about how they moved the project further from the farmers to the east by locating the development purposely on the floodplain. There was no mention of the impacts of the farmland to the north and south.
8. The developer has apparently purchased KSGC for about $285,000/ac (less than a city lot). The plan is to upzone some of the least expensive land to the most expensive land, industrial land at $2 million/ac. With a stroke of a pen by council and without doing one thing with the property, the land value of the 54 acres changes from $15 million to $119 million for a quick profit for the developer of over $100 million. With all of the water and backfilling issues, the incentive to develop this land is daunting. There is nothing stopping the developer from selling off the “industrial” land immediately once it is rezoned to let someone else develop it.
9. The previous owner that operated KSGC for over 30 years stated at the Public Hearing that the city council played a key role in proposing the 9-hole land exchange. This suggests that before hearing from the public, the decision had been made by the Mayor and councillors (except for 3) to industrialize KSGC.
The developer stated that the golf course lands are now retained by the city. The Public Hearing wasn’t even completed.
10. The developer stated at the Public Hearing that this application was at the start of the process and the engineering and design work was yet to come and this was only the land use stage. They do not know how much soil will be removed and how much fill will be required. The staff and developer confirmed that the geotechnical, hydrogeological, environmental, and other studies have not been carried out and yet the Mayor Dyas and Councillors Stack, Wooldridge, Singh, and Webber voted for this without this critical information. A decision made without due care.
11. The developer admitted at the Public Hearing that this industrial land isn’t needed when he stated, “We are planning for the industrial land demand that will exist in 5, 10, 20 years from now. We are building inventory for the future, not for tomorrow or next week”. So why is the city in such a hurry to destroy this sensitive floodplain area when the developer even admits it isn’t needed?
12. Councillor Cannan noted a professional appraiser did a comparative analysis of the value of the land swap with the 9 -hole golf course portion. He noted the appraiser said “they were not of equal value and warranted further review to protect Kelowna citizens”. Based on the appraisal, the industrial land is about 2X the value of the golf course land so Councillor Cannan stated it is a “birthday gift to the developer of approximately $10 million’. Councillor Cannan asked why the city hasn’t done an appraisal. He stated that decisions on public land require the highest standard of transparency and accountability and the burden of truth must be transparent. The city manager, Doug Gilchrist stated it was equal trade of value but, he said “there is no valuation document per se”. That is public money. The Community Charter legislation states (Part 3, Division 2, 25 (1)): a council must not provide a grant, benefit, advantage or other form of assistance to a business. This is definitely a benefit to the developer at the citizens’ expense thus the city has violated the Community Charter legislation.
13. Council voted on March 16th, 2026 to change the land use on Map 3.1 of the 2040 OCP back to industrial despite all of the information they do not have which puts the project at risk and the citizens at risk. A few councillors and the mayor said it will never be an 18- hole golf course. Why not? The option of expropriation was brought up because of the flood issues, species at risk issues, and farmland issues, but Doug Gilchrist said it had never been done in Kelowna. Is that a good reason? Mayor Dyas said it would have to be put in a budget. Then put it in. The Mayor said the city made an offer but that is in doubt. The mayor said “what about the next developer?” If the city bought it, they wouldn’t have to worry about the next developer. He did say he was worried about the development community. Really? Over our environment?
Mayor Dyas stated they made the best decision with the information they have. They don’t have any information other than a high-level plan from the developer. Is this acting in good faith for the citizens of Kelowna? No. This is decision making without due care. It is irresponsible and negligent.
The city can still buy it. They support all of the other sports…pickleball, soccer, tennis, recreational facilities, parks – these are all for the public…what about golf that provides for health, wildlife, the environment, and recreation?
The rezoning should not proceed. The city has not carried out its due diligence and has put the citizens at risk. The council has not operated according to their oath of transparency, integrity, accountability, and stewardship of public assets, As well, Council has broken the Community Charter legislation and approved a project without the critical information necessary to evaluate such a project.
