Big Plans for Monterey Road
Areas outlined in thick black line, are the areas under consideration for rezoning and OCP ammendments
Prince George, B.C. – Major Plans for the west and east ends of Monterey Road off Highway 97 north, have been given approval from Prince George City Council.
The plan for the area on Monterey Road west, ( image on the left ) calls for changes to the Official Community Plan and a rezoning, to allow for the development of a mini storage facility and complimentary commercial development on Area A, and the development of a motel and restaurant in Area B. The motel would have 90 units and the restaurant would have seating capacity for 70-90 people.
The developers plan a 1.8 meter buffer between the projects and the adjacent residential property line. Efforts will be made to incorporate existing trees into the buffer plans.
But residents in that neighbourhood argued further development will take away from the beauty of the neighbourhood and will increase the risks to their children because of increased traffic in the area.
Council, noting the access to the sites will be off Highway 97 didn't beleive there will be increased traffic through the neighbourhood, and gave the application full approval.
An application for the south side of this parcel ( not shown) called for an ammendment to allow for a higher density residential neighbourhood. That application was also approved.
On the East side ( image on the right) the application was to facilitate subdivision and future industrial development on a 21 hectare piece of property. Parcel's A and B would be designated for light industrial, and parcel C would be highway commercial. The development would not impact the pond which is on the east side of Highway 97, just north of Monterey Road.
Council approved that application as well ( Councillor Lyn Hall was not present).
Comments
Looks like here we go again, more development in the outlying areas instead of the city core where roads and infrastructure are already in place.
What is to become of all the industrial zoned property east of Queensway and north of Patricia?
That neighbourhood can use all the help it can get, the area is ugly.
Keep it on the hart.
Agree the area is ugly. Question is why? I would say a total lack of planning by past councils and we try to correct this by doing exactly the same thing???
Had a discussion yesterday on a different thread and to paraphrase JB…the area is a dogs breakfast in terms of planning what possible difference could one storage facility make. A hell of a lot if you live in a property that will now overlook a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. So they will “try” to keep the buffer of trees, will still be looking at the fence 7 months a year. If the city is going to allow this then they should grow a pair and mandate a conifer screen of blue spruce or cedar on any side that has overlooking residential properties.
Then there is the matter of how this decision will affect the city coffers going forward. If the OCP plan was left in place a rough estimate would see 40 single family homes on this land. For the sake of argument each of these homes pay 2k a year in property tax for a total of 80k a year. How does this compare with a light industrial property whose only improvements are a fence, a bit of blacktop and a cinder block building?
Mere months ago and just a stones throw away another large chuck of property had its OCP designation changed from future residential to light industrial….has all of this land been spoken for or is there space for the storage facility here?
Finally there is the motel, I would guess that much like the Bon Voyage on the west side the target market in the late winter and spring would be the out of town logging trucks that head here. I’m glad that I don’t live on Cook Place when a parking lot full of big rigs fire up at 3 or 4 in the morning and then rattle away as they warm up for a half an hour.
“Planning? We don’t need no stinking planning! ommmmmmmm! ” Council mantra
Beauty of the neighbourhood hey! Pretty much a lot of areas in the Hart are disgusting dumps that are along Highway 97. This would and could help clean it up a bit. And it would help those travelling North to stay in a hotel that is actually decent looking. I lived on the Hart and it’s not all pretty. The established neighbourhoods yes, but there are a lot of places that could use a touch up and a clean up in their own yards! To me, the Hart is neglected a crap ton more than any other part of PG. The new neighbourhoods are decent looking so I’m talking about the ones that have too many trees hiding junk like it’s a second dump.
There are a couple of really ugly motels on that stretch of the highway already; are we to believe that this is going to be a classier dump?
“But residents in that neighbourhood argued further development will take away from the beauty of the neighbourhood and will increase the risks to their children because of increased traffic in the area.”
Won’t someone please think of the children?
I’m not sure how realistic it is for the residents to expect that property will never be developed which fronts a major highway. Kind of similar to the Moxies situation.
“take away from the beauty of the neighbourhood” Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
ANY new development of this area would be good!! There needs to be a hotel/motel (NEW!!) in this area. The downtown is dead; quit thinking the development needs to be downtown.
The previous council’s may have let ‘anything go’; but really -there hasn’t been anything new built in the 97 north area for a long time. Hope it gets done in a timely fashion–as opposed to the mess up beside the library downtown!
“…and will increase the risks to their children because of increased traffic in the area.”
I don’t think that traffic will be much of an issue as the Transit buses presently gingerly negotiate Cook Crescent and Croft Road up to Glengarry – a stretch that is full of sharp curves, very narrow, no real shoulder, ditches, full of patches and bumps, no sidewalk for the kids and the residents on that stretch seem to have resigned themselves to these less than third world condition.
So did the patriarch of the family business that now has permission to develop these lands get away with altering the natural drainage of the pond on the N.E. side of the property?
metalman.
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