Kelowna moves forward with plan to protect land for potential Highway 97 widening

Kelowna city council has taken a step forward in its long-term vision for Highway 97, approving a plan to protect land for a potential future widening of the busy corridor. The Highway 97 Right-of-Way Protection Plan, approved Monday, aims to secure space for the addition of two transit-only lanes alongside the existing six lanes between the William R. Bennett Bridge and UBC Okanagan.

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We can work around what we have now but we want to make sure we don’t have more obstacles in the way.

While the project is estimated to be about 20 years away, the plan requires a 50-meter right-of-way, potentially necessitating the acquisition of land from affected property owners and developers in the future. City officials emphasize the plan's goal is to guide future development and prevent new projects from creating obstacles to the potential widening. "We want to make sure we don’t have more obstacles in the way," said Brittany Hallam, Integrated Transportation Manager with the City of Kelowna.

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That’s why we want to get ahead of it, because if this takes place and happens and we’re not communicating and being transparent about it, then stories will start to develop on how it is and we don’t want that to happen.

Mayor Tom Dyas stressed the importance of early and transparent communication with potentially impacted property owners. "We don’t want stories to start developing on how it is and we don’t want that to happen," Dyas stated, advocating for proactive engagement. However, Councillor Ron Cannan was the sole dissenter, questioning the plan's long-term realism and immense potential cost, suggesting billions of dollars would be needed to acquire properties.

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For example, Highway 97 in Gordon, it’s congested. How are you going to buy all those buildings? It’s not going to be millions, tens. It’s going to be billions of dollars.

Cannan urged the city to prioritize immediate congestion-relief solutions, such as optimizing traffic signal timing and removing bottlenecks. The Ministry of Transportation and Transit confirmed it is working closely with the City of Kelowna on the corridor protection. They stated there are no current plans for expropriation, and any future expansion would occur gradually through development applications. City staff are set to begin discussions with potentially affected property owners, with a report back to council expected in early 2027. Currently, there is no construction timeline, cost estimate, or committed funding for the project.

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We need something that’s concrete now. Synchronization of the … signalization of the lights, maybe removing a signal light or two, moving traffic through.