NORTH SHORE’S NEW AGE: North Shore Plan Paved the Way for New Development, Kamloops This Week

This feature article appeared in the Kamloops this Week on February 9th, 2012 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

North Kamloops BC Park Real EstatePart of what has attracted so many new developments to North Kamloops can be found in the North Shore Neighbourhood Plan.

The 176-page document is a comprehensive land-use blueprint intended to guide the growth of the North Shore for the next 20 years.

It is full of initiatives, from green building-tax incentives to the design of green streets, all while encouraging density and infill development.

It took three years to complete before finally being approved in 2008.

Since its inception, the city has tackled or completed one-third of the medium or high priorities on the plan’s policy and capital-projects checklist.

Some of the larger projects include the completion of the North Shore Spirit Square at Yew Street and MacKenzie Avenue, a green-street pilot project on Fleetwood Avenue and the North Shore Transit Exchange.

They are projects worth millions of dollars.

“We’ve made huge progress on it [the neighbourhood plan],” said David Trawin, the city’s director of development and engineering services.

In the last four or five years, he noted, interest in development in North Kamloops has outpaced that seen in the downtown core, in part because there is more vacant land.

“It’s [the North Shore] kind of rediscovered itself in another way and now we’re actually seeing some development and interest by a lot of groups,” Trawin said.