For more than four decades, Kelowna had a citizen committee dedicated to helping the City consider an important question: how should a growing city protect the places that tell its story?
Today, that committee is no longer active. The Kelowna Heritage Advisory Committee, along with its predecessor bodies, once provided a dedicated heritage voice within the City’s planning process.
At a time when Kelowna is experiencing significant development pressure — including major planning changes affecting its Heritage Conservation Areas — it is worth asking what happened to the Heritage Advisory Committee, what role it once played, and whether Kelowna would benefit from bringing a dedicated heritage advisory voice back to the table.
The Kelowna Heritage Advisory Committee: A History Dating Back to 1978
Kelowna has a long history of formal municipal involvement in heritage conservation.
According to the City of Kelowna’s cultural planning documents, municipal support for heritage began in the 1960s and became more formal when a Heritage Advisory Committee was established in 1978.
The committee was community-based and advised the City on matters including heritage site designation, redevelopment permits and the Heritage Resource Inventory.
In 1983, Kelowna undertook its first Heritage Resource Inventory. That work ultimately helped identify many of the buildings, landscapes and neighbourhoods that Kelowna recognizes as historically significant today.
Volunteer heritage advocates, local organizations and residents played an important role in developing Kelowna’s heritage program and in recognizing the historic character of neighbourhoods such as Abbott Street.
Citizen participation, in other words, has been part of Kelowna’s heritage system for decades.
From Heritage Advisory Committee to Community Heritage Commission — and Back Again
The structure of Kelowna’s heritage committee evolved over time.
In 2001, the Heritage Advisory Committee became the Community Heritage Commission, giving heritage advice a more structured role within municipal government.
The structure later changed again, and a Heritage Advisory Committee was established for the 2018–2022 Council term.
Its purpose was straightforward:
to advise Council on matters related to heritage protection and conservation.
The committee’s primary objective was to provide advice on heritage-related development applications, but its mandate extended beyond individual buildings. It could consider the heritage significance of buildings, structures and landscape features throughout Kelowna.
That distinction matters.
Heritage conservation is not simply about deciding whether an old house should remain standing. It can involve architecture, streetscapes, landscapes, neighbourhood context, historic patterns of development and the relationship between new construction and existing places.
Who Sat on the Kelowna Heritage Advisory Committee?
The Heritage Advisory Committee was deliberately structured to include people with relevant expertise.
Its five voting members included:
- three technical experts with professional expertise in design, planning or construction, with preference given to people with heritage experience; and
- two heritage experts with expertise in historical information or conservation.
Members were expected to understand Kelowna’s heritage planning framework, including the Official Community Plan, Zoning Bylaw and Heritage Conservation Area Guidelines.
The result was an additional layer of review by people specifically selected for their knowledge of heritage, architecture, planning and conservation.
What Did the Committee Actually Do?
The Heritage Advisory Committee was not merely ceremonial.
Its mandate included providing recommendations on matters such as Heritage Revitalization Agreements, heritage designation bylaws, heritage conservation covenants, major Heritage Alteration Permits, Heritage Register requests and certain Official Community Plan or rezoning applications within Heritage Conservation Areas.
The City’s archived meeting records show the committee reviewing real development proposals affecting Kelowna’s heritage neighbourhoods.
One particularly useful example can be found right on Abbott Street.
2248 Abbott Street: Development With Heritage at the Table
In 2014, a redevelopment proposal came forward for 2248 Abbott Street, a lakefront property within the Abbott Street Heritage Conservation Area.
The property was within the HCA but was not itself listed on the Kelowna Heritage Register.
The proposal involved demolishing the existing dwelling, rezoning the property and constructing a new semi-detached residential development.
Because the property was located within the Heritage Conservation Area, the proposal required a Heritage Alteration Permit.
On May 1, 2014, that permit application — HAP14-0006 — was reviewed by Kelowna’s Heritage Advisory Committee.
The redevelopment ultimately proceeded.
That makes 2248 Abbott an interesting example of what a heritage advisory committee actually meant in practice.
The existence of the committee did not mean that development could not happen.
Instead, it meant that when substantial change was proposed within a Heritage Conservation Area, heritage considerations had a formal place within the review process.
That distinction is important.
Heritage conservation does not have to mean freezing a neighbourhood in time. It can mean ensuring that change happens with informed consideration of the place being changed.
Today, a new residential development stands at 2248 Abbott.
The neighbourhood evolved — but heritage had a formal seat at the table while that change was being considered.
What Happened to the Kelowna Heritage Advisory Committee in 2021?
The turning point came during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2021, Kelowna City Council suspended the duties and meetings of both the Agricultural Advisory Committee and Heritage Advisory Committee as provincial public-health restrictions affected public meetings.
Development applications did not stop while the committee was suspended.
Instead, the City continued processing heritage applications without consideration by the Heritage Advisory Committee.
What initially arose during the pandemic ultimately became a much longer change in Kelowna’s heritage review system.
By 2022, the Committee Was Still on Hold
The City’s 2018–2022 Council Committee End-of-Term Review, presented to Council in October 2022, provides an important snapshot of what happened next.
The report stated that:
“The Heritage Advisory Committee has not met since January 2021 pending further review of its role.”
During the committee’s absence, applicants were instead required to retain professional heritage consultants.
City staff recommended assessing the effectiveness of using professional consultants compared with a Heritage Advisory Committee and reviewing the committee’s role and mandate.
This is an important distinction in understanding what happened.
We have not found evidence of a single Council decision formally declaring that Kelowna’s Heritage Advisory Committee was being permanently abolished.
Instead, it was suspended, remained on hold while its role was reviewed, and was ultimately not re-established for the following Council term.
The temporary suspension effectively became the new reality.
What Replaced It?
Kelowna did not stop reviewing heritage applications.
The City now relies heavily on registered heritage professionals.
For many heritage applications, including Heritage Alteration Permits, applicants are required to obtain a Heritage Review prepared by a qualified heritage professional.
These professionals provide valuable specialist expertise. They can assess the historical significance and architectural merit of a property and advise how a proposal aligns with accepted conservation standards.
But a professional consultant and a municipal advisory committee are not necessarily the same thing.
A consultant provides professional analysis of a particular application.
The former Kelowna Heritage Advisory Committee was a Council-appointed public body with a broader mandate to provide recommendations on heritage protection and conservation.
It brought together multiple people with expertise in design, planning, construction, historical research and conservation.
Its meetings also formed part of a public municipal process, with agendas and minutes available for residents to see.
Both models can provide expertise.
But they perform different roles.
Kelowna Has Changed Dramatically Since the Committee Stopped Meeting
The timing is difficult to ignore.
The Heritage Advisory Committee stopped meeting in January 2021.
Since then, Kelowna’s planning environment has undergone enormous change.
Provincial housing legislation has introduced new density requirements. Kelowna’s zoning and planning framework has changed. The City’s Heritage Conservation Area Guidelines have undergone a major review.
And most significantly for Abbott Street, a portion of the Heritage Conservation Area now overlaps the Transit-Oriented Area surrounding Kelowna General Hospital, creating the potential for development at a scale very different from the historic neighbourhood.
These are precisely the circumstances in which specialized heritage advice can be particularly valuable.
The question is not whether Kelowna should stop growing.
It is whether heritage conservation has a strong enough independent voice while that growth occurs.
Residents Are Asking for the Committee Back
The idea of reinstating the committee is not simply a historical question.
During the public hearing on Kelowna’s updated Heritage Conservation Area Guidelines, Abbott Street resident and FRAHCAS member Susan Ames specifically asked the City to reinstate the Heritage Advisory Committee.
Her request also raised concerns about relying on mandatory heritage consultants and about how development decisions within the HCAs would be made under the new guidelines.
The request demonstrates that the absence of the committee continues to be relevant to residents navigating heritage and development issues today.
Calls for its reinstatement have also come from others concerned about the future of Kelowna’s built heritage.
Heritage Needs a Seat at the Table
Kelowna’s current Official Community Plan commits the City to identifying, conserving and protecting historic places and calls for heritage conservation to follow recognized national standards under the guidance of registered heritage professionals.
Professional expertise is essential.
But there is also value in asking whether Kelowna should once again have a dedicated public body whose purpose is to look at the bigger picture.
Kelowna is growing rapidly. Housing is needed. Neighbourhoods will change.
Good heritage planning does not require choosing between growth and preservation.
It requires thoughtful decisions about how change happens.
For decades, Kelowna recognized the value of having people with heritage, planning, design and conservation expertise formally advising local government.
The Heritage Advisory Committee provided one place where those conversations could occur.
Perhaps the question Kelowna should now consider is simple:
If a dedicated heritage advisory voice was valuable for decades, might it be even more valuable during one of the fastest periods of change in the city’s history?
Heritage does not need to prevent change.
But it deserves a seat at the table while change is being decided.
Sources & Further Reading
City of Kelowna — Heritage Advisory Committee Terms of Reference
Explains the committee’s mandate, membership, expertise and role in reviewing heritage-related applications.
City of Kelowna — 2018–2022 Council Committee End-of-Term Review
Documents that the Heritage Advisory Committee had not met since January 2021 and discusses the City’s use of professional heritage consultants during its suspension.
City of Kelowna — Heritage Advisory Committee Meeting Archives
Archived agendas and minutes documenting the work of Kelowna’s former Heritage Advisory Committee.
City of Kelowna — May 1, 2014 Heritage Advisory Committee Meeting
Includes Heritage Alteration Permit HAP14-0006 for 2248 Abbott Street.
City of Kelowna — Heritage Alteration Permits
Explains the City’s current Heritage Alteration Permit process and requirement for Heritage Reviews by Registered Heritage Professionals.
City of Kelowna — Heritage Review Terms of Reference
Explains the current role of Registered Heritage Consultants in assessing proposals within Kelowna’s Heritage Conservation Areas.
City of Kelowna — Heritage Conservation Areas
Current information about the Abbott Street and Marshall Street Heritage Conservation Areas and Heritage Alteration Permit requirements.
City of Kelowna — Heritage Conservation Area Guideline Review
Background on the recent review and adoption of updated conservation and development guidelines for the Abbott Street and Marshall Street HCAs.
