By Chad Klassen

BUILDING KAMLOOPS (Part 2): Aberdeen key to future development in Kamloops

Jun 26, 2018 | 11:42 AM

In the second installment of our series Building Kamloops, we look at the Aberdeen community, which is perched above the valley bottom. The Aberdeen community started growing in the 1980s before an economic downturn averted plans for big development. But in the last five years, it’s taken off. A housing boom has meant Aberdeen is booming as well. Chad Klassen tells us why Aberdeen may be the key to fulfill the city’s goals in the new Kam Plan.

According to the new Kam Plan, 43 per cent of the city’s growth will happen in the southwest sector, which includes Sahali, Dufferin, and Aberdeen. 

Growth in Aberdeen, however, is expected to be significant and may be the key to future development in Kamloops. 

“When you look at just the Aberdeen area, that will accomodate about 20 per cent of that 43 per cent,” says general manager of Aberdeen Highlands Development Corporation Chris Bebek. “So we’re looking at 2,600 units and an additional potential 2,500 units if that land is removed from the ALR.”

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One of the busiest developments is along Linfield Drive, part of the 350 acres that Aberdeen Highlands owns and is developing. 

“We can add about 800 to 1,400 units over the next four years,” notes Bebek. “That would be about 20 per cent of what the city requires for their projected growth over the next four years.”

The other units being built are further south in Aberdeen along Bentall Drive and beyond, developed by Septer Investments, Inc., a company that has 330 acres of land in the area. 

“Within the 330 acres, we’ll be attempting to building a community. Everything from schools, roads, and housing,” says President of Septer Investments, Inc. Tod Cooper. 

Tod Cooper, who is a big part of the ‘Wings Above Kamloops’ home for hospice, envisions a community beyond luxury homes. He believes any city needs balance, and he wants to build ranchers for seniors, develop mobile homes, and even apartments and condos. 

“Every community has citizens that need a place to live, so whatever community we build has to have a variety of different types of housing. If we don’t, we are at risk of hollowing out the community,” says Cooper. 

As for Aberdeen Highlands, the company plans to build out Aberdeen Drive to the former Aberdeen Hills Golf Links. It’s also in line to develop lands close to the old Afton mine site — land Ajax would’ve occupied had it been approved, which would’ve deemed it “useless” for development, according to Bebek.

But Bebek says that future growth will require major infrastructure from the city with water pressure issues in the area. 

“Some of the requirements for the upper lands that are going to provide the larger portions of future development, we need a water reservoir, there’s some other infrastructure projects that need to take place. You need to plan for those,” notes Bebek. 

The city says it realizes the need for more infrastructure to keep on track with the new Kam Plan, including a connection from Aberdeen to Pineview. 

“What we need for infrastructure, which will be on for the next DCC (Development Cost Charges) by-law, which will be next year, is looking at things like a reservoir, things like the road connection from Aberdeen to Copperhead (Drive),” says city director of development, engineering, and sustainability Marvin Kwiatkowski. 

With more neighbourhoods and residents popping up in Aberdeen, Cooper also envisions a secondary connection from Aberdeen to the Old Merritt Highway.