Residents Stop Rezoning of Piece of Park

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 03:58 AM

Residents saved piece of park from being zoned for residential housing

Prince George, B.C.- The residents of the Moriarty Crescent area of College Heights have saved a piece of their local park.

The City wanted to rezone a 0.22 hectare portion of the 1.59 hectares of Moriarty Park park to RS1 for single family home development.

More than 55 residents attended a public consultation meeting on June eleventh and expressed strong concerns relating to the potential loss of what is considered as the most usable portion of the park. Moriarty Park is valued as a community gathering area and green space.

A survey was also distributed at the meeting and made available to those residents who could not attend the meeting. Over 70 surveys were received and confirmed that most residents have resided in the area for more than 10 years and use the park on a weekly or daily basis. All of the survey respondents were not in support of the rezoning and redevelopment of the proposed portion of Moriarty Park and stated similar concerns to those expressed at the public meeting.

In a report to Council, staff say "Where neighbourhood support does not exist, marketing efforts are usually ceased indefinitely. In the case of Moriarty Park, the rezoning application will not be pursued at this time."

Councilor Dave Wilbur says this is a democratic system, the people spoke and the right decision has been made.

Mayor Dan Rogers said the "Residents spoke, we heard and we will move on."

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Posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: gus on July 14 2009 4:45 AM

Interesting that this happened on the same night that the Parks & Open Space Master Plan Implementation Strategy was on the table.

Obviously the Implementation Strategy fell short of the needs of the community.

With that in mind, I noticed too many "shoulds" in the document as opposed to "must" when it comes to community consultation.

Posted by: He spoke on July 14 2009 8:55 AM

Good for the people to protect the park areas.

In all this development in the westgate area, is it me, or did they forget to make allowance for green or park area. Seems like endless houses with no space for park or schools.

Posted by: DPJ on July 14 2009 9:20 AM

Good Dan Rogers and the council listened to the people on this issue. Good for you.

Posted by: MrPG on July 14 2009 9:39 AM

What about that big wasteland up on Tyner Blvd with the two half-finished houses on it?

That could make a heck of a nice park.

Posted by: seamutt on July 14 2009 3:32 PM

Good thing it was stopped as others would be after green areas if this one was allowed. That is one of the things I like about PG is all the green areas. New subs. don't seem to have much green.

Posted by: NMG on July 14 2009 6:06 PM

"What about that big wasteland up on Tyner Blvd with the two half-finished houses on it? That could make a heck of a nice park"

I agree completely. Heck, it would have even made for a nice subdivision had they left some living things standing instead of the "nuke" approach.

One would think that with all of the green space we lost as a result of MPB, council would be looking to ensure that any new developments maintain or ADD green space as part of the design.

Posted by: gus on July 14 2009 10:56 PM

The original CH kept trees wherever possible. The CH development beyond the first push up St Lawrence took a tree removal and mine the hell out of the place approach. It still makes for a moonscape look from the airport hill entry alongside the BCR.

Compare that to some of the subdivisions in the southern part of Kelowna - the south mission area, I believe it is called.

The only subdivision that has kept trees is the one done by Dirk Loedel at the end of Malaspina. Much of the rest looks like pictures of ticky tacky houses from the 1960s in California.

Then there are the apartment ghettos going up on Ferry/Westwood/Ospika. The City should not be allowing such designs that are likely the precursors of the slums of the 2020s.

Posted by: gus on July 14 2009 10:58 PM

I think the City and the developers are taking a page from the whole body shaving culture and "bald is beautiful" look.