Haldi Road Matter Moves Forward to Public Hearing
Prince George, B.C. – Members of the Haldi Road community sat quietly in the gallery at Council Chambers as Prince George City Council voted to move an OCP amendment to the next stage which is a public hearing.
At issue is the piece of property known as the former Haldi Road Elementary School which is proposed to become a therapeutic community as a recovery centre for women.
Councillor Brian Skakun was the sole member of Council to oppose having this item, and a rezoning application for the property , move forward.
There will be one public meeting which will be seperate from the planned public hearing, a request for written comment from adjacent neighbours, two ads in a paper announcing the public hearing and meeting.
This is the second time this piece ofproperty has come before Council for a rezoning, the first time it was passed by Council, but the neighbours took the city to court and won.
So now, it’s a request to first ammend the Official Community Plan to allow this kind of development in any neighbourhood, to be followed by a rezoning for the specific piece of property.
Residents of Haldi Road have made it clear they will not give up the fight as they say this kind of change to the OCP means the City can impact any neighbourhood at any time depending on the wishes of special interest groups.
The OCP public meeting may take place as early as January 9th, and the public hearing could happen as early as February 4th.
Comments
It appears that the City has all its ducks in order this time around.
Seems to me that they are hell bent to provide all the time and effort required to get the proper zoning etc; for those vested interest groups that want to open this facility, however they are giving short shrift to those people who live on Haldi Road.
Once again local citizens, wants and desires are being pushed aside to facilitate others, and in this case, others who have no interest in the area, except for the fact they purchased this residence to establish a treatment facility.
The fact that a facility could be established at the empty Government jail site at Huda Lake, or maybe re-open the Nechako Treatment Centre at the Regional Hospital, seems not to be an option.
The only option seems to be to establish the centre at this location, regardless of what people want. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Hopefully the residents of Haldi Road, can show that there are many options, and the City needs to repair its bad case of **tunnel vision** and start to focus on the City of Prince George as a whole.
At the end of the day, we are all taxpayers, and we are all entitled to a fair and impartial hearing on these types of projects.
Anyone who thinks that the Mayor and Council are prepared to see both sides of this issue are kidding themselves. There is only one side, and that is the side of the proponents.
How else can you explain the amount of time and effort that the City has gone through to facilitate this issue.????
I do not think that there is a point to waiste time with city unless that is all one has time for. We are nobody unless you are late with your tax payment then you are somebody. IMO
No surprise here…. They did the same thing, the same way for the BBK Fiasco.
Taxpayers – be prepared for the next fiasco to happen in December 2013……The city now has the timing down packed on how to treat the citizens of this town…..
Thank you Brian you are the only one listing, I often wonder why councel even asks the people that live in PG what they think because it does not mean anything to the City, their mind is all ready made up before they start, The people have fought and won twice. The City of Prince of George continues over and over to make choices that make people strongly disagree with and they don’t care This location has no water, no problem we will truck it in, really 30 + people that’s a lot of water, maybe they can just run a water main to the old school and just pass on costs to the local people, who cares what they think we the city can do what we want, and they continue to prove it over and over. It appears the local zoning means nothing they will just change it to suit the special interest groups and who cares about the rest. Sad day, now I see problems of lovely downtown my family is afraid go to, moving up to collage heights, that’s a good move to clean up downtown
The question is who owns this school and what do they stand to profit from this, and if that person or persons supported one of our elected officials during the last civic election?
From what I understand the Hutda Lake camp is owned by a guide outfitter and is not for sale.
did the mayor excuse herself because of her conflict of interest? She said she was in conflict the last time this was in front of council so she must have taken the high road to avoid any further controversy on this one. anybody know?
Green was quoted from HQPrincegeorge – “Councillors didn’t have a lot of questions, I think there’s certainly been a lot of media coverage, and several people are very familiar with the project itself. So it’s not really a question of the program or the facility, but really around the land use in the area, and that’s what we will hear from the public.”
What the hell have the people being saying all along Green?
Palopu writes: Anyone who thinks that the Mayor and Council are prepared to see both sides of this issue are kidding themselves. There is only one side, and that is the side of the proponents.
Rest your case………….
She stated she no longer had a conflict of interest because the employment relationship has changed. She stated she consulted a lawyer.
Did anyone really expect anything any different from this city and its employees and elected officials?
I can relate to the expression âJust because itâs legal doesnât make it rightâ. We see it so often in the news and we are appalled when powerful and wealthy people are allowed to be unscrupulous and legally damage others without any condemnation. In fact, some of these people get to keep their reputations intact as being outstanding members of our community. Self-serving people can slip by the public with their motives undetected. It is hard to judge if the people we elected or the ballots we voted really made our lives or the community we live in better. Who is following up and providing the due diligence of the actions of our elected and appointed officials and the results of their programs . It seems the average citizen has so much on their plate trying to make ends meet and supporting their family that they donât have the time to turn the proverbial stone even in their own town.
“It seems the average citizen has so much on their plate trying to make ends meet and supporting their family that they donât have the time to turn the proverbial stone even in their own town.”
And therein lies the rub!!!!!!!
We pay taxes to hire and do, and elect to oversee that BECAUSE of that. To do our work and take care of our communities.
Just as Canada is a collection of provinces, and the province is a collection of regions and cities, Prince George is a collection of neighbourhoods.
When the wishes of people in a neighbourhood are stepped on in such a fashion as we have now seen at least twice in the last year, our communities are under threat from the very people we put in place to protect them.
THAT is the message no one is getting at City Hall – neither the planners who put together a report full of arguments which are built on quicksand for foundations to meet the wishes of their Council, nor members of Council themselves.
We have a very sad case of some very hard hearted people at the helm at the moment.
“THAT is the message no one is getting at City Hall “
THAT message is not getting to the people of this city either.
What the city has done to many of the Haldi residents is a feeling of rape and theft. Leaves a warm and fuzzy feeling – NOT.
Silly hall is isolating itself. Prince George mayor and council less councilor Brian Skakun are ailienating it’s citizens. This is the cause of the position the citizens find they have to take to get the mayors attention.
One, now retired councillor, was overheard stating “no homeowner is going to tell me how to run MY City” – this was during a fight with the City in which our neighbourhood was being “raped” “for the good” even though our neighbourhood worked with the City hired engineers to come up with a plan that was better for everyone. According to the council of the day they did not have to look at the problem as there was no problelm except a bunch of whinners. What the City ended up with was the worse of all solutions.
At the council meeting last night, Mayor Green asked administration (Walter Babicz)if there had been any other amnedments made to the OCP this past year. He replied that he wasn’t aware of any. I think then our planning department (Ian Wells)quietly piped up and said that there had been possibly one. I will see if I can find this but Ben could you use your magic in helping me attain this information? Thank-you
Not to sure if it was BBK. Might have to look further back in years.
Just wonder, when there is a change proposed to the OCP on such a contentious issue, whether there are mechanics in place to force the city to go to referendum for any change TO the OCP.
The OCP was supposed to be complied with for neighborhood development. Taxpayers picked up the costs for City’s lawyer’s costs and paid part of Haldi Road Community’s costs because City illegally rezoned Haldi School property, contrary to OCP to allow for a Women’s Treatment Centre. This was an unnecessary cost borne by taxpayers. Now City, is determined to again help the developer with their reapplication to get the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centre (now called something else), into the former Haldi Rd. School by approving 1st and 2nd reading of OCP/rezoning amendment, which is still contrary to the wishes of the majority of the residents in the Haldi Road area. It appears the City, knowing the majority of Haldi Road neighborhood is opposed, is still determined to force this treatment centre into their area by amending the OCP. In other words, the OCP is a useless document providing no protection to any neighbourhood in Prince George (because the amendment is to include all of Prince George, not only Haldi Road). The OCP was initially developed at some expense and consultation with the neighborhoods in Prince George. Was this all windowdressing at taxpayers expense.
Also, funding for this private property venture is expected from various levels of government. This property is not on city water or sewer so water will have to be hauled in and the sewage lagoon upgraded. With the questionable source of income and high service expenses and staff expenses — at what point will this venture be turned over to the Prov. government and at what expense to the taxpayer? I suspect the developers will be laughing at us fools all the way to the bank. Is this the way our taxpayer dollars should be spent–supporting special interest group’s profits and City legal bills?
My head is getting sore from being tramped all over, and my voice hoarse from not being heard and my faith in City Hall doing the right thing is nil. It’s time we join together to let City Hall know they work for us and we are not their servants but taxpayers paying their wages.
This can only be accomplished by a unified voice from fed-up taxpayers.
geepee. I agree 100%. The City is oblivious to any concerns of the average PG Citizen.
We had similiar problems with the BBK bottle depot, and the Friendship center at 17th and Queenway.
The people who were impacted in these area, were totally ignored. In the case of the Community Energy System, being built at 4th and Scotia, it would have been built if it was not for PACHA, and the concerned citizens of the Millar Addition. Same thing for the River Road dike, without a huge effort by concerned citizens they would now be in the process of builing this dike.
Once people in a neibourhood make a stand on an issue, they should be listened to, and if they have a credible case (as it would be for Haldi Road) then the City should look elsewhere.
It seems what drives the location of various projects in Prince George is based on who owns the property. Not a very good criteria, as it overlooks common sense, and citizens concerns.
We need to take the City to task on these issues, and let them know once and for all that (WE) the citizens of Prince George have a democratic right to be listened to.
At some point we need to have a General Meeting of concerned citizens with as many people as possible in attendence so that we can send a message to the City.
All groups that are being impacted by assinine decisions at City Hall should be in attendence to state thier positions.
In light of council’s Haldi decision, with the exception of Brian, the balance of council and the mayor should be turfed into never, never land. From councilors that tried to force through a 10 million dollar River road dike, an energy system where we now pay more to heat city owned buildings, gift of 1/2 million to Commonwealth on the PG hotel flip, tax increases far in excess of inflation, travel junkets, it is getting to be a just a little overwhelming to try and put up with the working of city hall. A major house cleaning is in order and long past overdue.
Something is wrong with this picture when the amendment is to include all of Prince George not just Haldi Rd. What is this going to mean down the road for other areas of the City? Who owns the property now??how much will they lose if this plan gets turfed??How much will they gain if they sell it to the Government? I think there is a lot more to this story that we are not being told. Good for Brian he works for us.
How ’bout, when there’s gonna be a change to the OCP, we force the city to go to referendum? These changes affect every citizen in this town, because they can change any neighborhood plans, this isn’t gonna be the last special interest group that pushes the city for their own benefit.
Skakun seems to be the only councillor on side, gotta a feel’in even Eugene would go for this.
Actually, don’t think Eugene would allow this to happen.
Palopu “We need to take the City to task on these issues, etc…..concerned citizens with as many people as possible in attendence so that we can send a message to the City. All groups that are being impacted by assinine decisions at City Hall should be in attendence to state thier positions.”
Fine, then be at the City meeting in January and write letters to the city….simple – it is a start.
The Haldi people have been trying to wake this city up for a very long time, yet now it is hitting closer to your neighbourhood. What are YOU ALL going to do about it?
guess what; I live in the Connaught Area ,we have been getting this stuff forced on us , we fought back ,it didn’t do any good and yes it hit our neighborhood big time, and yes it affected our home values. What can you do about it, nothing, they WIN. Been there done that.
Have you seen Dec. l9th. Citizen its editorial is very Biased and unfair. Thats how they play the game.
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