Land Tenure
Real Estate Services, acting on behalf of the City, is responsible for several land tenure initiatives. These initiatives include:
- Encroachments
- Right of Ways or Easements and
- Road Closures
An encroachment is a portion of any installation, works or structure that extends onto City property. City property includes:
- land parcels
- lanes and sidewalks
- right of ways and easements
- streets
- water lots
Real Estate Services focuses on 3 main areas with regards to encroachments:
Guidelines concerning the potential encroachment of a commercial building located in the Downtown Urban Centre are outlined in Policy 329.
Real Estate Services verifies that encroachments do not exist in forthcoming development plans. If, while reviewing project plans, the Real Estate Services team finds that an encroachment will affect the City’s ability to provide services or that it will restrict public access, the plans will need to be revised. All projects should be constructed within their legal building envelope.
If any "as-built" building improvement is found to be encroaching on City land, the City has the ability to remove the conflicting encroachment at the owners expense.
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A statutory right of way is a legal agreement which allows a third party, generally a utilities or service provider, to access a piece of property that is not their own.
An easement is a legal agreement between bordering properties which allows one property owner to utilize sections of the bordering property for access.
The City of Kelowna uses statutory right of ways to secure tenure for underground or overhead utilities (power, storm, sewer, water) and public access agreements. Easements are used to secure access over adjacent parcels.
To find information on right of way or easement charges registered on a property, please contact the BC Land Title and Survey Authority office in Kamloops 
.
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Occasionally, the City owns unnecessary lanes or roadway. Under Section 26 of the Community Charter
, the City has the ability to raise title to these areas and sell them to adjacent land owners.
Procedure for Road Closures
The City must first pass two bylaws - one stating that the road is proposed to be closed and the second one removing the road dedication. Removing the road dedication allows the land parcel to be used for a purpose other than a road.
Once the bylaws are passed by City Council, the City will raise title to the newly created parcel of land. This simply means the owner of the land parcel is now listed as the City. Once the City is officially listed as the owner of the property, they are able to sell the land.
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