Spallumcheen has land worthy of development for employment opportunities, according to a report.
The employment lands report was presented by the Regional District of North Okanagan to Spallumcheen council Monday night. It supports development of employment lands which will form new industrial, commercial and industrial growth.
Coun. Christine Fraser pointed out that working together to improve employment benefits the region’s communities.
“Even if a local business outgrows where they are and they want to move to a different community it still totally shows that business that has moved to Spallumcheen still brings in really big money for the surrounding communities,” she said.
The report aims to address vacant land plots that can be developed to generate employment in the next five years.
Key findings of the analysis were 84 per cent of current employment lands inventory falls within the core of the region of Vernon, Coldstream, Spallumcheen and Armstrong.
According to the report, Spallumcheen falls into a priority investment zone in the central-south area of the regional investment corridor with Vernon, Coldstream, the Okanagan Indian Band and Areas B and C.
The zone’s key initiatives would be to expand infrastructure servicing to water and sewer, as well as focusing efforts to support infill and redevelopment on under-developed and under-utilized employment lands.
A majority of the industrial nodes are also located in Spallumcheen and Vernon.
Seventy per cent of the industrial investment lands lie in the priority investment zone as well as 92 per cent of commercial lands.
Fraser voiced concerns about communities not willing to participate.
“Its great to say on paper but it’s another thing to actually do it,” she said.
“I think we should spend money if everyone’s on board. I just don’t want it to be money wasted. It may seem like only one community is benefitting from it but it’s the whole community,” said Fraser.