
(Photo Supplied: exploreourshore.ca)
After some 2-years of work and consultation, the official community plan for the North Shore has been finalized.
Kamloops Council gave the green light for the plan which includes a broad-based nod toward recognizing that community safety needs to be a priority; while also diving into more specifics.
Jeremy Heighton suggests a main outlook for the North Shore OCP is to densify the community, which he suggests will address several other city initiatives.

Population Density North Shore Community Plan
“Densification is about centralizing the population, making your communities walkable and accessible and also having the capacity to deal with the affluent and other issues that occur with populations more reasonably.”
Heighton says there is a lot of capacity within the immediate Tranquille zone specifically for in-fill or multi-family units.
“We are looking at four-storey (buildings) sort of in the lower end of the Tranquille Corridor, four to six in the centre, and then 10 to 12 at the four corners (at Fortune and Tranquille and Eighth) and of course behind Library Square which is pre zoned for 16.”
- Row Housing
- Three Plex
- Four-plex

Mixed Use Building development example
Also part of the plan includes building height restrictions near the river, which Heighton says is for character and functionality purposes.
He says this as the lower end of the North Shore is in the floodplain zone.
“There’s a lot of silt here and not a lot of bedrock there, so there’s some there are some engineering challenges as well,” said Heighton.
“As you move further off the lower end of the North Shore back up into sort of the Halston and out into Brock, you end up sort of going up into the 200-year floodplain and you tend to have higher heights of land, you have more stability from an engineering point of view as well.”
He says these height restrictions are also hoped to help build a sense of community, something he explains sets the foundation of the North Shore Plan.
“If you’re building an intimate relationship with your corridor, you don’t want a 42 tower building lining each side of the street,” he said.
“The reality is you want to sort of find a balance between, ‘oh my god, densification,’ and something reasonable, it builds a sense of community.”
As for densifying at the top of the hill Heighton suggests there are too many cost-related issues with going that route.
“The issue with putting everything at the top of the hill is you have to pump everything up, and then slow everything coming down. So there is actually a huge infrastructure cost to that.”
The plan also touches on sight-line restrictions for development near the water, rooftop greening, and ways to utilize space in areas such as Yew Park.
- Spirit Square
- Parks and Recreation North Shore Community Plan
Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian says this new vision for the North Shore is based on growth.
“We have set the table for the private sector to grab these ideas.”
He hopes the local business community gets behind the vision they’ve laid out.
“I think the potential is great, I think the profitability is great, and certainly a majority of our population lives on the North Shore at this point in time, and would really enjoy some of the visions we have there.”
City Staff will begin amending bylaws to legalize the goals laid out in the new community plan.
The zoning and bylaw changes are expected to be finished before the end of March.
The full North Shore Community Plan can be viewed here.
-With Files from Paul James