I live about as close to this area as one can get. There's a tendancy to think of Dufferin as "in the sticks", and it's not. Everything that one might need is available in Dufferin or Pineview, with more options right next door in Sahali. The multiplex is going in right next door, including a library - hardly something one sticks in "the sticks". City boundaries extend up the highway well past this point. This is the area where an anticipated 3rd bridge connects to the south shore in the latest ideations on that concept - it needs to curve around Kenna to preserve parkland, deal with geography, and get the right spots connected.
While the proposal didn't get into specific unit breakdowns, it wasn't "1300 apartments". It clearly mentioned a bunch of the "missing middle" of duplexes and townhomes. The era of the single-family detached home with the big yard is gone. Best you'll find is the Aberdeen house with a driveway and a strip of xeriscape out front, with a token plot of lawn in the back. Side "yards" are s spot to stick your heatpump and a path/stairs to the back. Having lived in one of those, it might as well be townhouses. It's a terrible compromise.
At the same time, the argument for "just build that density downtown" isn't a panacea. There's no available vacant land so costs are going to be higher for land assembly and acquisition. And those 1300 home built downtown are going to trend toward smaller apartments vs the missing middle. And they're still going to require sewer, water, electricity, garbage, etc., Changing the location doesn't change these requirements.
"Bus stop is 1.3 km away". Yup. Beautiful thing about bus routes is the can be expanded. Our bus service isn't any better or worse really than the rest of Kamloops. I do use it instead of dealing with hassles of driving/parking, depending on what I'm up to.
The price tag to get services to this area feels scary, because the project is large. 1300 homes is going to require some serious size infrastructure. The good news, is that the area is largely a blank slate and it should be possible for some planning and right-of-way allocation to deal with it. At the same time, the multiplex is going to need similar improvements. How often have we (rightly!) complained about something going in, and then being redone the next year "why couldn't they just do it at the same time?". Well, here they have an opportunity to do planning and at least a phase of the infrastructure in a meaningful and forward-looking way.
Other things I'd like to see are an interchange - at a minimum planning and land reservation for it for now, with a west-bound offramp to start - because at some point Hillside and Copperhead would be stuffed, and there is a school zone at that same intersection. Given the proposal isn't solely for residential, there should be largely vehicles anticipated for this route.
1300 homes is enough to spawn a school. Pineview has a new school that won't have the capability to handle, or to expand to handle, this demand. Dufferin is a smaller elementary that has limited options for expansion save for a multistory rebuild. You want to make the $$ from this development, you get to make sure it doesn't screw over the community.
1300 homes means greenspaces, tot lots, and parks/playgrounds. Kenna is there sure, and the multiplex, but that's not the fair balance that a community expects.
If the developer is smart, they'd also start talking about additional amenities and the priority for those in the plans. Groceries, a restaurant/cafe, other assorted retail, would do wonders to help people understand this is an entire neighbourhood being proposed.
Apologies for the novel, I needed to type a few things
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