Your Voice: Tiny homes site looks more like a prison camp than a community

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Dear Editor, Mayor Dyas and Kelowna City Council,

Back in December, I had emailed you about the new "tiny homes" installation on Highway 97 and Leathead Road. My concern was the location and the configuration and how being right on Highway 97 and the entrance to our city would impact tourist impressions of our community, never mind those of us who live and work in the area.

Mayor Dyas, you graciously replied with an extensive and very detailed response that encouraged waiting to see the final product before casting judgment. You promised nice fencing and beautification efforts to make it look appealing and to fit in with the surroundings.

Well as the project appears to be nearing completion and a giant cement wall is encasing this so called "community," I must say we have very different definitions of "beautification" and "fencing" and making it look appealing. The concrete blocks make it look even more like a northern Alberta work camp. You know those blocks are typically used as barriers or retaining walls and not fencing? They are big, ugly concrete blocks. It looks really hideous if you haven't had a chance to drive by yet.

I get the city is trying to get people off the street but this project is an atrocity. There is nicer concrete fencing along some of our highways in the middle of nowhere in BC rather than this approach that looks more like a prison camp than a community. Have you seen the giant blue metal gate they installed between the concrete blocks today? It's almost unimaginable that anyone in authority thinks what is being built is appropriate! I heard you say no building permits or plans needed to be presented. What a joke. You painstakingly take apart every detail of apartment buildings that come before you to make sure they have some design to them but this just gets slammed up with no questions or approval required?

I can see lawsuits coming from neighbouring business owners. The decision to place this thing in that spot is going to kill all the businesses that are next to this atrocity.

Your reply also noted that the location was chosen because all required services were already in place (power, sewer, water). There seems to be a real lack of transparency on this.

The Crowley Avenue complex looks 100 times nicer but it is off the beaten path where no one sees it. Why not put this ugly site there and the nicer units where everyone drives by each day?

With respect, this whole project needs a re-think or at the very least, the City needs to deliver what they promised, a site that is nicely done and fits in with the neighbouring businesses.

Sincerely,

Peter Dixon