North College Park Presentation to Highlight Council
Prince George, B.C.- The gallery at the Prince George City Council chamber is expected to be packed this evening as residents of College Heights make a pre-emptive strike to protect North College Park.
Developer envisions 12 units on portion of park land – image 250News archive
The residents have done a lot of legwork, collecting more than 900 signatures and will be calling on Council to prevent the sale of any portion of the park for potential development by granting “dedicated park status to all land in North College Park.”
There is a developer who would like to develop a portion of the park for a 12 unit seniors housing development. While the developer says the project would only utilize one hectare of the 13.86 hectares of the park, the residents have been stead fast in their opposition to the project, citing the park’s use for dog walkers, nature lovers and wildlife.
When the petition was presented to Council last month, Council made it clear there was no development application nor was there any rezoning application in the works. The recently completed Parks Strategy does note the playground equipment in North College Park is to be replaced this year.
The Park Strategy also indicates that in the 4th quarter of this year, the City will look at all parkland in the City and make some decisions about disbursement of surplus parkland so it can be ” repurposed” and the funds from those sales would be put towards other park enhancements or development. It is important to note that there are no parks listed as part of the disbursement discussions and any decisions will be preceded by extensive public consultation.
Comments
That;s great that residents are protecting all green spaces in our City..
LYNN HALL…… WE HAVE “”NO”” SURPLUS PARKLAND IN OUR CITY
Sure it’s only 1 hectare of 13.86, but what’s to stop the next developer from saying it’s only 1 hectare of 12.86 and so on?
Parks should not be open for development. If they let this one go through there will be developers looking at every park in the City (they probably already are). There are plenty of other locations they can build.
All started by the city selling half of Ron Brent’s soccer field to build a seniors facility so the assumption is as long as it is to build some type of seniors facility you are good to go. They also removed the land set aside for a school in the new subdivision on the way to the university to develop a multi family site.
When you buy a house in PG you have to do your homework, is there an empty lot, is there a park or closed school or some type of green space that a developer can haggle into a project to change the dynamic of the neighbourhood you are buying into?
The problem is zoning. Park zoning has a lot of other uses available. Most people would think that a park is some un-touchable piece of land in perpetuity. It is not. What they should have done is got the land into the Nature’s Trust Conservancy. You can put a school on a parcel zoned park. You can put a cemetery on a parcel zoned park. Nature’s Trust locks off the parcel from development.
does this developer know something doesn’t own land but trying to develop it wouldn’t anyone be able to buy this land from city at the highest bid
Exactly if one should purchase a home anywhere, do your homework. With recent announcement of park closures in Prince George are we to assume these closed parks will remain green space. Pretty obvious that they are reserved for future development. With Prince George and it’s vast areas of green space these areas will become developed henceforth population growth within city boundaries without expanding city boundaries. College Heights is experiencing high growth rates wether we like it or not. The space is there so why not utilize it. Unless we all support taxi /transportation industry to expand city boundary to further the taxi fare which is great!
Bravo to development expanding into this city, quit chasing them away as Prince George history has shown. And ya complain that city residents in Quesnel are afraid of a new bypass o new development, it’s about time city council has encouraged city growth. We elected them! And yes on their election platform they mentioned development, and ya voted them in. So let the sun shine and let’s see Prince George grow into a much requested populas hub.
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