Latest News
May 27, 2006
We have posted a letter on our Letters page from R. F. Horkoff of Cherryville which originally appeared on Castanet under the title "Classic Example of Greed" with the permission of the author.
April 18, 2006
CRCP has made recommendations to city council to set a maximum amount for campaign expenditures by candidates in civic elections and to establish new rules for conflict of interest arising from campaign contributions. Click on Editorials for the news release.
April 9, 2006
Click on the Letters page for a recent letter by John Zeger on Kelowna's sustainability discussion.
March 26, 2006
An excellent recent article by urban planner and professsor Gabor Zovanyi "Urban Growth Management and Ecological Sustainability: Confronting the 'Smart Growth' Fallacy" has been posted to the Articles and Links Page.
March 18, 2006
Two new letters by John Zeger have been posted to the Letters page. One is on the crisis at the Kelowna General Hospital and the other in response to an editorial comment in the Capital News.
A website has been established for ASK at www.sustainablekelowna.org.
March 16, 2006
A news release concerning the recently announced Affordable and Special Needs Housing Task Force has been posted on the Editorials page.
Nov. 14, 2005
CRCP is releasing the results of the CRCP 2005 Civic Election Survey of candidates in this year's municipal election. Click here for the answers to questions submitted by CRCP from the candidates that responded too our survey.
Sept. 28, 2005
New sections of the ASK platform will be made public approximately every two weeks. Please go to www.sustainablekelowna.org and click on Platform for the latest updated platform.
September 8, 2005
Citizens for Responsible Community Planning (CRCP) wishes to announce the creation of a new municipal political party, Action for a Sustainable Kelowna (ASK). ASK has been formed in order to run a slate of candidates dedicated to preserving and promoting the quality of life of Kelowna residents, ensuring and strengthening a lasting social community, and protecting and keeping in harmony with our natural environment. The ASK slate of candidates identifies the rapid rate of population growth that Kelowna is presently experiencing as being a major threat to the aforementioned objectives and proposes a comprehensive growth management strategy to moderate this growth rate while upholding the principles of community benefit, concurrency, equity, participation, productivity, and sustainability.
At present Rick Shea, Andy Thomsen, and John Zeger form the nucleus of ASK and each will be seeking a seat on city council as councillor. ASK is also in discussion with other potential candidates and is optimistic that it will field a full slate of candidates by election time.
August 5, 2005
CRCP will be hosting a public meeting on Wed., Sept. 7, 2005 at 7:30 pm to be held in the meeting room of the Kelowna library on Ellis Street. The topic of the meeting which will be open to the public will be "The Future of Kelowna." At the meeting there will be a presentation of recent trends of population growth and development and their impacts on our city. At this meeting CRCP will announce what the nature of its involvement will be in the Kelowna civic election in November.
August 1, 2005
Click on our Letters page for a new letter to the editor by John Zeger, "Development Doesn't Mean Progress",where he writes about the urban growth machine.
For more about the nature of the urban growth machine and its components clickhere to read Harvey Molotch's classic article "The City as a Growth Machine".
July 28, 2005
Please click on our Letters page for a new letter to the Capital news by Robert Cichocki titled "Sustainability vs. Pro-development".
July 23, 2005
Please click on Letters for a new letter by Rick Shea "Agenda Behind the Words" and a link to a letter by Ed Brown entitled "Unimpeded Invasion".
July 13, 2005
Click on Voting Records for the vote breakdown on the development proposal at 492 Clifton Road.
July 8, 2005
Geo-technical challenges could doom Lawson Landing. Click here for story.
July 7, 2005
CRCP has endorsed the planning principles used in the city of Boulder, Colorado notably population growth controls, an ultimate population ceiling, building height restrictions of four storeys, and requiring developers to provide 20% of all residential units as permanent affordable housing with the goal of 10% of the overall housing stock in the city becoming affordable housing.
Please go to the Letters page for a recent letter to the editor by John Zeger on Boulder, Colorado.
Also click here for an article from Planning Magazine on Boulder.
June 26, 2005
Click on the Issues page for the reasons why CRCP is opposing the development proposal for several four storey apartment buildings along Gordon Drive between Guisachan Road and Cameron Avenue.
June 23, 2005
Click on the Letters page for an open letter to Kelowna city council from CRCP on the closure of the Iridian Youth Detox Centre.
June 19, 2005
Click on the Letters page for a new letter to the editor by Robert Cichocki, "Mayor Has Failed Residents of the City."
June 9, 2005
Click on the Issues page for the reasons CRCP opposes highrises for Rutland.
May 31, 2005
Highrises for Rutland? City planners will hold a presentation on this subject on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 at 7pm in City Council Chambers at 1435 Water Street. Please attend to obtain more information and to express your opposition to this concept.
May 29, 2005
CRCP will be holding its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 1 at 7 pm at the Kelowna Library on Ellis St. in the group study room, second floor. Please e-mail us at saveparadise@yahoo.ca to reserve a seat.
May 23, 2005
Click on the "letters" page for a new letter by John Zeger on the "alternate approval" process for the Aquatic Centre.
May 2, 2005
We have recently added a new page to our website "The Myths of Smart Growth" originally created by the NPG organization. "Smart Growth" is the planning philosophy that guides Kelowna city council and the city planning department. Here are concise rebuttals to the familiar arguments that we frequently hear that "it's better to grow up than out." Please click on "The Myths of Smart Growth" found in the left hand column of this page.
April 22, 2005
Please click on our letters page for a new letter by Robert Cichocki on population growth in Kelowna.
March 4, 2005
These beautiful scenes will dissapear if Lawson Landing is approved.(Click for larger versions)
Feb. 25, 2005
The results of the Capital News' "Sound Off" question of February 23, "Do you feel the Lawson Landing project is critical to the revitalization of Kelowna's downtown core?" are:
YES 30%
NO 67%
UNDECIDED 3%
January 18, 2005
CRCP Endorses the New Urbanism -
CRCP has endorsed the principles of the New Urbanism with an emphasis on neo-traditional design as expounded by leading architects and planners such as Christopher Alexander, Alex Krieger, Leon Krier, James Howard Kunstler, George H. Ramsey, Nikos Salingaros, and Vincent Scully.
The neo-traditionalist school rejects sprawl as a sustainable urban form but also is critical of modernist approaches to planning characterized by downtown centralization and highrise architecture. The new urbanist vision is that of a community of mixed use neighbourhoods where many activities of daily living occur within walking distance.
An important part of the New Urbanism is the notion of sustainable development which looks at the building, neighbourhood, community, and the surrounding environment as a system. This view affirms that all development must be in harmony with its environment and "where the needs of people, creatures, land and the economy are being met without exceeding the capacity of the land, natural resources and supporting infrastructure and without compromising the ability of the environment to support the needs of future generations".
For more information on the New Urbanism go to our Links page which features articles by the aforementioned theorists and the Charter of the New Urbanism (CNU).
January 11, 2005
A new editorials page has been created. Here you can find opinions on news in Kelowna as it reflects the views of Citizens for Responsible Community Planning. Please click on "editorials" on the home page. Also the "myths of growth" page has now been completed. Finally, some excellent new articles reflecting CRCP's planning philosophy are available on the "links" page under planning information. Look for more changes to our site in the coming weeks!
January 6, 2005
A survey commissioned by the Okanagan University College, Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Alliance and the En'Owkin Centre found 93 per cent of residents believe it is important to protect natural ecosystems and wildlife in the region.
The poll showed residents take pride in the natural heritage of the region and want more done to protect the Valley's natural environment. Residents showed overwhelming support (76 percent) for protecting species and their habitats, even if that means slowing down economic development. (emphasis added)
The phone survey contacted 300 adults in the South Okanagan-Similkameen between Nov. 2-3, 2004.
(Kelowna Daily Courier, Jan. 6, 2005)
October 13, 2004
The CRCP has compiled the voting records of recent controversial development related motion proposals which were presented to Kelowna City Council. The voting records can be viewed on our site here. Feel free to look at the information and participate in our online discussion forum if you so wish. The CRCP believes in an open and accountable system of local governance and will continue to update the voting record information as the weeks and months go by.
We must remember that we are 13 months away from the next municipal election, our current mayor and councillors will start conducting their business on council with the next election in mind, so as responsible citizens of Kelowna, we must remember how we felt when council did not act accordingly to the wishes of those who elected them.
October 8, 2004
The CRCP board held their monthly meeting on Wednesday Oct. 6. At the meeting, a motion was passed to push for a referendum on the 50-metre pool. Based on the community response in support of the 50-metre pool, the CRCP is not taking a position on whether we should have a pool or not, but, we are taking a position that City Council must ask taxpayers whether or not they are willing to increase their taxes for the project.
The CRCP takes this position based on the 2004 Commuity Survey for the City of Kelowna Draft Strategic Plan. In the survey, only 20.1% of survey respondents indicated that raising taxes was an acceptable approach to obtaining funds to improve City services in Kelowna, whereas 35% of respondents suggested a reallocation of current city funds and another 43.7% stated the City should look to other methods
October 2, 2004
Copies of the City of Kelowna Strategic Plan 2004 Draft Edition are available at the city planning department.
It makes for interesting reading and presents some good points, however, it almost totally ignores the responses to Question 11a and b of the 2004 Community Survey.
In response to Question 11a "The population of Kelowna is currently 100,000. In the next 20 years, it is expected to reach 150,000. Do you feel this will influence your quality of life?" 75% of respondents said yes.
To Question 11b. "How would a larger population in Kelowna impact your quality of life?" (an open-ended question), only 30% of the responses indicated that such growth would have a positive impact while 86% of responses indicated a negative impact (multiple responses were allowed).
This can only be interpreted that public sentiment about such a rate of growth and/or absolute population size should be regarded as a flashing amber light signalling to city planners the rate of Kelowna's population growth should be slowed! Accordingly, this concept of a slower rate of growth should have been included somewhere in the report as an action statement. CRCP will provide a more detailed analysis and comments on the Draft Strategic Plan at a later date.