North College Park Petition Received By Council
Prince George, B.C.- Although there is no application before Prince George City Council to consider making a piece of North College Park available for development, many who live near the park want Council to know there will be fierce opposition to any such plan.
A group of concerned residents in the College Heights area, submitted a petition which carries signatures from 725 fellow neighbours who wanted to, as the petition reads, ” register their opposition to any rezoning of North College Park that would allow a housing development to be built on parkland adjacent to Eton Avenue. We wish all of North College Park to remain parkland.”
According to the correspondence sent to Council, 725 of the more than 900 signatures on the petition, are from area residents.
The residents say that while they are aware there is no application to rezone the park before council, they want to “Make their concerns known to Prince George City Council before any such application is made.”
There is a developer who would like to use a portion of the parkland, adjacent to Eton Avenue to develop a seniors housing project. The project calls for up to one dozen homes on about one hectare of land. That would leave more than 12 hectares of the park untouched.
“I appreciate them bringing this to us” said Councillor Brian Skakun. Mayor Lyn Hall noted it was important to know the delegation plans to present to Council on March 6th.
The petition won’t be lost, as it will be brought forward should there be an application filed on the project.
Manager of Development and Planning, Ian Wells, says there is no movement to sell the piece of property.
So, no sale, no application for a rezoning “So there is really nothing more the City can do” said Councillor Jillian Merrick.
“I am glad they are coming on the 6th” said Mayor Lyn Hall, “I think there is an understanding we don’t have anything in the hopper, there is no development plan.” Mayor Hall added, “That’s what this is all about, they can air concerns and ask questions.”
Comments
There is plenty of non-park land available in the area to build on. No need to mess with our parks. They were designated parks for a reason, to be parks.
Not a bad idea. Be proactive rather than react to the developers plan (if they have one). This way they have done the polling in the area, rather than leaving it to anyone else.
I find it ‘interesting’ that this concept has been labeled Seniors’ housing. It seems to be a plan of houses to be built of sale at market prices, with some label to make it seem like it serves some community need. Well, as it stands it is simply a proposal of a housing development for sale to mature purchasers. I cannot see what community need it would fulfill.
Perhaps, if it was a proposal for housing to be rented to lower income seniors, a combined level of need facility – ie. independent living through to assisted living and residential care, I could potentially see using city land (perhaps not a city park though). But to sell land to build housing to be sold for profit, regardless of the target market is a slam dunk NO in my view.
There is no redeeming feature of this plan except an attempt to extort land from the city at a favourable price under the label of providing housing for seniors. Seniors who can afford to buy a new home like this, do not need any form of civic funding or support.
Be aware, just because something is labeled ‘Seniors’ doesn’t mean it actually serves those who need financial support in their last years.
This will not end up as a seniors complex down the road. It looks to be all “expensive” single units. Leave it as a park. Absolute NO from me. Build an actual seniors complex across O’Grady from Home Depot.
It’s sad that our City father’s, only look at Parks or places already used for recreation, to take away or develop
When the subdivision at the corner at Westgate was ok’d the only person that I heard say it was for seniors was the Mayor. There was absolutely no mention of seniors with the proponents advertising and still is nothing on their advertising on the actual lot.
Seniors nowadays are classified, depending who you talk to and research start at 55, 60 and 65.
Why would a senior spend that kind of money and later spend thousands more to upgrade for senior accessories such as ramps, stairlifts to get to the next level and the list goes on…One would think that the seniors have enough common sense to look ahead for their needs for living quarters etc.
I for one do not believe this housing will benefit seniors at all and again believe we are being bamboozled by this city planning dept. and mayor again.
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