The proposed development on Kamloops Lake will include some of the old heritage buildings at Padova City staying on the site.

Project manager Tim McLeod says while many of the building are in disrepair, a few are in good shape and are part of the future plans.

“There’s roughly 40,000 square feet of heritage barns, shops, and a blacksmith shop. Those kinds of things that, years ago, the owner had the foresight at that time to stabilize them and put some time and effort into restoring the outside of them. So, those will become the focus of a marketplace in the new community,” he says.

“Of the other buildings on the site, to be honest, they’ve just been non-maintained for about 35 years and there’s really not a hope of trying to get in there and fix something up that has a proper business case. There’s one home that we’ve restored that my wife and I live in and that’s the old 1922 fire chief’s house.”

Padova City was used as a provincial institution between 1907 and 1983.

McLeod says the developers plan to deconstruct other buildings rather than demolish them, saying it would lower the carbon footprint of the project. The development, called Tranquille on the Lake, is proposed to include several thousands units of housing, a daycare, a winery, a lakefront inn, a village shopping centre and other farm uses on 470 acres.

If the Agricultural Land Commission supports the development application, Kamloops council would then have to decide on rezoning the land, and a public hearing would happen beforehand. The Tranquille on the Lake neighbourhood plans also outlines the soil under those buildings would need to be remediated before future development goes ahead, and the plan also says protecting the natural environment is required.