What is the total of new Townhomes in Glenmore 1000+??

[Queen K]

I always recommend the ones in Lower Mission anyways. Moral of the story for EVERY gated community is carefully check all strata rules and know if you can live with them or not.

[Noisy Boater]

Ya we looked at a few in there on the wknd. Will certainly read over the fine print should we decide thats the route to go. Thanks for the info.

[Terris]

Wow... I didn't even have to bring out the good chum to catch a land shark.

Kelowna and in particular Glenmore was a more livable environment before it became "developed". I was born and raised in North Glenmore. It is not the same and most definitely NOT a better place to live now compared to then.

Not gonna change my mind about that...

I helped build many of the new houses along the Moubray Road extension and also a few houses in the then new Wilden "development".I knew Scotty and few of the other builders there.

Most of the "roads" in Wilden have existed there since before I roamed those hills as a child in the 1960's. They've just been upgraded and yes, I know of the requirement to set aside a percentage of lands for city infrastructure.

The Wilden site is free from some of the technical difficulties being faced by those building on the bottomlands where orchards once thrived.

There, underneath the old topsoil that allowed these orchards to be among the best on the planet, is a strata of dense clay which is why the majority of these buildings do not have basements.

My business, in fact, is currently busy reviewing old geodata on this area due to many requests from owners of some of these townhouses and gated communities that are now experiencing foundation and infrastructure issues and damages. ie. sinkholes, due to water still moving underneath along this clay strata and being displaced into older sites by nearby larger "developments".

Main reason for these serious issues?

Developers have covered over the old creeks and ponds that were running all through the Glenmore flats into Brandt's Creek, and which still do exist underneath all this "development".

People were sold homes on land by developers who knew about these issues but chose to override the need for more costly site prep.

They took the money and ran just as they do in virtually every other "development" here that has been approved by the city.

Some "developers" have even bought and redeveloped and resold the same properties several times now.

One current example of this "hiding the facts to amplify profits", that you can go and see for yourself is underway in Lake Country off Potterton Road where a new industrial park is being built on top of an old creek bed and tributary of Vernon Creek that just last spring was pouring water into the SYSCO parking lot immediately below.

Today this property has been flattened and site prepped but no drainage was installed to mitigate these seasonal overflows.

Go look for yourselves.

Are the new owners even aware of these potential issues?

The same creek and underground drainage issues not performed by the original developer which, I suspect is likely the same group now developing Potterton Rd. site, and the city of Kelowna has had to cough up hundred$ of thousand$ of taxpayer $$$ just for a temporary patch for to repair the damage now being encountered by the Natural Factors plant on the old Hiram Walker site and by several other businesses there , i.e. Holiday Park.

This damage was all over the news last spring.

There are countless other example throughout Kelowna and it appears my little business will be thriving because of these "developer" dodges, oversights and misrepresentations all under the tacit nudge, nudge, wink, wink approval of a succession of lackey city councils with no long-term vision and who are/were associates and investors with "developers".

I would never buy a townhouse in North Glenmore as it will only be a matter of time before these land subsidence issues will present themselves and then; who do you turn to resolve these problems?

The original developer? The city? Not likely.

No Gordan, greed is NOT good and not all development here in Kelowna can be called progress.

Porsche dealership as a sign of progress?

Puhleez...Give your head a shake.

Buyer beware...

https://www.bing.com/search?pc=EUPP_cos ... subsidence

[Lady tehMa]

That old railroad could have become a great bypass route, but.....OH NO.....it's a bike path instead.

In Kelowna, the rails with trails path was made before the railway was pulled out, so it runs alongside the railbed. They could use it - theoretically.

[northglenmore2012]

Now that is a fact, jack.
Thanks Terris

[Grandan]

"Terris".




I would never buy a townhouse in North Glenmore as it will only be a matter of time before these land subsidence issues will present themselves and then; who do you turn to resolve these problems?

I know quite a bit about the soils in N Glenmore.
I think what you are referring to is expanding clay or possibly building on fill which is also a problem.
When properly excavated to an appropriate depth and back filled with granular material there should never be a problem in Glenmore Clay.
The city got wise after a number of builders tried to cheap it in site preparation.I know there were problems with some builds in Glenmore which is why I was required to have the foundation Engineered and a Geotech did the site prep.

In my case I excavated up to 6 ft below original ground to firm bearing before it was back filled with pit run gravel and compacted. There has never been a hint of any settlement in my house in over 20 years.
Problems are best resolved before construction through Engineering solutions, not afterward.
Your lack of confidence in Engineering suggests that you either don't understand the building permit process or don't have any confidence that there are solutions to the problems you describe.
My background is engineering design, I designed subdivisions among other things.
I would be much more suspect of anything built in the downtown area near the lake where soils are saturated from a high water table.
The Grand floats on a raft of concrete some 8ft thick, others have pilings to limit settlement. Pre-loading appears to a method of choice to consolidate the saturated soils.

[dirtybiker]

Funny thing about clay, if one doesn't get to the bottom of it till it is gone,
it will come up over time and cause an issue.
When a weight is placed over it, and a vibration of any kind is transfered through the ground,
(heavy building, high traffic zone, Farm/Industrial equipment, street traffic, flightpaths.)
that clay will find it's way back to the surface.
That is when it will cause a foundation/settling issue.

Not calling anyone out, or discounting credentials, just observation and knowledge
earned over many years of being a grunt in all forms of groundwork prep.
No formal Schooling/Degree's associated with my statements.

Geo-Mat can only do so much..

[alanjh595]

OH, I believe you. I am in Glenmore and my house is still settling. It has been here for 25 years. The back gardens are so hard that I can't get a shovel into them and have just given up. The front gardens I had the soil removed and a truckload of sand and another of good topsoil brought in 4 years ago and they are starting to get hard again too.

[Grandan]

OH, I believe you. I am in Glenmore and my house is still settling. It has been here for 25 years. The back gardens are so hard that I can't get a shovel into them and have just given up. The front gardens I had the soil removed and a truckload of sand and another of good topsoil brought in 4 years ago and they are starting to get hard again too.

I would think that the soil around the house would settle if had been disturbed but the house settling is doubtful.
I have placed dozens of loads of sand and gravel on my property to counteract the clay.

[dirtybiker]

I have placed dozens of loads of sand and gravel on my property to counteract the clay.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ,, ,,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Grandan]

I have placed dozens of loads of sand and gravel on my property to counteract the clay.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ,, ,,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For anyone building on Glenmore Clay, one issue is that when wet the clay sticks to your feet when you walk around, it is slippery and it tracks everywhere you walk. The clay sticks and builds up on the bottom of your boots dragging you down. It is a problem that does not go away until you cover it with sand and gravel.
The price of a truck load of quality gravel is about $300, so the cost goes up fast. Yes. the clay squeezes up through the gravel but only if the gravel is not deep enough.

[dirtybiker]

And what you are saying is backing up what I have stated.

You still have it coming to the surface and just keep throwing more $$$$ at it.
And that is on ground that is not expected to be weight bearing.

Before building a mega-metric tonne building.

How much excavation of clay needs to be done so as to not push it's way back
to a problematic depth ?

Developments by BIC.
"Get yours while they last"

[alanjh595]

Now I am wondering about the tower and all the new construction at Scenic and Glenmore Rd.s.

[Jflem1983]

Poured a foundation for a local NHL star years ago. We built that thing 2 ft thick to hold back the clay. That clay is like a living creature. Hell bent on destruction.

[Terris]

.
Problems are best resolved before construction through Engineering solutions, not afterward.
Your lack of confidence in Engineering suggests that you either don't understand the building permit process or don't have any confidence that there are solutions to the problems you describe.
My background is engineering design, I designed subdivisions among other things.
I would be much more suspect of anything built in the downtown area near the lake where soils are saturated from a high water table.
The Grand floats on a raft of concrete some 8ft thick, others have pilings to limit settlement. Pre-loading appears to a method of choice to consolidate the saturated soils.

I have witnessed engineers being screamed at and otherwise humiliated in front of their peers by "developers" who are unhappy about the costs associated with properly engineering some of the projects that currently exist or are being proposed.

I've commented on the ground issues with The Grand development and the proposed hotel on the old Willow Inn site in other threads.

A relative of mine, until very recently, worked for Stantech Engineering and I had several lengthy conversations about the way some developments are being pushed by developers, mainly out-of-towners who are used to using their money as a battering ram to get what they desire, but lack a clear understanding of the rather unique geology under our feet here in Kelowna.

Their are other, deeper ground structure issues besides water table, displacement and subsidence problems that engineering methods, (i.e., preloading) will not mitigate. One of those issues being a major seismic event.

Downtown Kelowna and, unfortunately the hospital, the new RCMP building and downtown Fire Hall will not fare well at all during any seismic over 4 on the Richter scale.

Glenmore Valley itself sits on top of one of the major faultlines crossing the Kelowna glacial till kame delta. The clay deposits there are from the last ice age and every structure being built there directly displace the one or several others beside it.

The problems there are already manifest.

Little thought or planning by engineers (even though they should be aware of it) to a probable seismic event is being done here because there is little glamour in that for a developer who is only looking to fulfill a desire to create a money making structure..

It's all about the money and I believe that local "developers", and especially the out-of-towners need to be held to account for the life of the development...

We as taxpayers can't afford to continue paying for all the problems being left behind, after the fact, by unchecked, "development".

Developers here have been ruining things for the last 50 years and it's time we took a good hard look at the results and problems.