Here’s Kelowna’s plan for more bikeable, walkable neighbourhoods

Imagine a city where you had the option to bike or walk to the grocery store, your workplace, and a restaurant or clinic all within 15 or 20 minutes.

The concept, known as a 15-minute city, has risen in prominence among urban planners around the globe in recent year. The idea is not new, coined in 2016, and is a part of a larger revision of city design in the face of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and growing economic inequality.

And while Kelowna does not specifically reference the concept outright in long-term planning documents, the idea of having work, shopping, education, healthcare, and leisure activities easily reachable by several modes of transportation is not a foreign idea at City Hall.

“Our OCP [Official Community Plan] does speak to those elements of building neighbourhoods where people can walk or ride a bike to those kinds of destinations, if they want to,” Rob Miles told Kelowna10. “It’s all about choice.”

Miles is the long-range policy planning manager at Kelowna City Hall, and has intimate knowledge of the much-debated OCP.

He said the document does speak to building neighbourhoods that given people the option to not drive to a wide range of amenities, if they so choose.

Long term planning in the city involved extensive feedback from residents on what kind of a city they wanted to live in.

Common replies contained wants for the aforementioned destinations closer to home, and the choice to be able to take various modes of transportation. Residents also want to see the Okanagan’s natural environment protected from outward urban growth.

“In practice, one example is recent efforts to bring a grocery store and other shopping opportunities to Upper Mission neighbourhoods,” he said. “That means in the future, residents there will have a choice. … It’s about bringing those services closer to where people live.”

Beyond simply convince, there are obvious health and less obvious economic benefits that come with highly accessible amenities.

Many neighbourhoods in Kelowna already have complete or partial elements of a so-called 15-minute city, with obvious examples being downtown, Rutland, and the Pandosy Village.

The 2040 OCP outlines five urban centres, with the additional the Capri Landmark and Midtown – both of which are seeing a rapid addition of mixed-used and low-rise residential buildings.

Miles said planners are careful to take custom approaches to new concepts to meet the needs of Kelowna.

“The city’s vision for how it will grow in the future is about making it easier for people to travel across the city,” he said. “And balancing those investments in things like sidewalks and transit, with road projects.”