Neighbourhood Would be Home to 11 Thousand People

Thursday, October 19, 2006 04:00 AM

Five Phase Plan outline as displayed at the Civic Centre

The plan for University Heights was the subject of an open house at the Civic Centre last night. About 150 people attended the session which offered details on the plans for the 674 hectare development.

There are 14 property owners involved in the 20 year plan which will be developed in 5 phases.

The first phase is area “A” on the right hand side of the map shown above.

That phase would easily tie into existing infrastructure.

The next phase would be “B” but the water line would have to be extended from the University (at the top of the above map) through to the south end of University Heights as illustrated by the blue dotted line on the map. “That is a significant expense” says Heather Oland of L&M Engineering, the designers of the community plan. She also says the plan indicates there is confidence in Prince George’s future. “There is expansion of mining, the Prince Rupert Port, inland container port, oil and gas exploration, a lot of economic diversification.”. Oland says the investors would have done a lot of homework before making the move to develop a plan such as this, which would provide housing for about eleven thousand people.

According to the details released last night, the plan would have 2320 single family dwellings, and 440 multi-family units. 34 hectares have been set aside for parks, and 166 hectares, or 25% of the neighbourhood, is dedicated to greenspace.

The greenspace includes protection of riparian areas so animals such as moose and deer have natural travel corridors, both east - west, and north-south.

In addition to hiking and biking trails, the plan suggests that under current school models, the neighbourhood would need 4 new elementary schools and one new high school.

(photo at right, taking a look at geotechnical drawing)

Those who attended the open house had lots of questions about how the new neighbourhood will tie into existing properties. They also asked questions about the proposed extension of Massey Drive which is shown running east west through the development and about the stability of roads on steep side slopes.

All of the comments from the open house will be reviewed, then the draft plan will be submitted to Prince George City Council for review.

There will be a second open house in February or March of next year to gather public comments before a final plan is put before City Council for consideration.

L&M’s Heather Oland says if the project moves through the approval process without delays, it is possible construction of phase one could start as early as the summer of 2008.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Thursday, October 19, 2006 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: editor on October 19 2006 9:51 AM

The first phase doesn't need installation of sewar or water mains, those lines are already in place, so in effect, the sale of 182 housing units (10 per hectare) will pay for much of the expensive part of phase two, which is bringing that waterline from the University to the rest of the area.

Posted by: owl on October 19 2006 10:47 AM

"A 20 year plan? No one knows what this town will look like in 5years let alone 20."

I very much agree with you Lefty. That is the mistake made by planners in the past. It is one thing to plan for numbers, it is another to plan for time. Based on similar plans (actually much more detailed than these concept plans some 30 years later) The City should have a population in the 120,000 plus range now.

So, with the 20 year window for completion of this comes a growth rate, plus a distribution of where else in the City there would be increased housing.

Remember, we have been building less than 200 housing units per year over the last decade or two. Times 20 years we are looking at 4,000 housing units which is somewhat less than this part of the city is planned to contain. However, as I said, there are other parts to this city which have land available. So, we would require 20 years of about 2 to 3 times the rate of building housing units than we have become used to in the past 20 years.

I look at this as the very preliminary stages of a "concept" plan. There are many parts of this which will change over time.

The one thing I notice that stands out like a sore thumb ..... it is the same olde same olde. ..... This is sprawl city at its finest .... I heard some call it smart growth and others call it infill ...... there is no way this plan is either one of those ... infill does not require new arterials and trunk services ....

Infill is the golf course, the Fraser Bench (bad location unitil industry cleans its act) part A of the above as the editor stated, Peden Hill medium density and SF infill which has been happening for the past decade, the medium density development on 6th and Vancouver, the seniors housing proposed for Ron Brent, etc.

Infill would also be taking some of the older stock single family housing in the area east of Central, between 5th and 15th and rebuilding it to an average density at least twice, if not three times as high. Now that would be smart growth. NOT the stuff they are building on Hill near DP Todd right now, for instance. That is same olde same olde on smaller lots.

Posted by: owl on October 19 2006 11:00 AM

From the above: "which would provide housing for about eleven thousand people."

and then: "According to the details released last night, the plan would have 2320 single family dwellings, and 440 multi-family units"

That is 2,760 units for 11,000 people. That works out to close to 4 people per housing unit and makes absolutely no sense. Something is wrong with the numbers, or something is wrong with the planning assumptions based on past experience.

I believe we are now less than 3 per housing unit in PG and heading further down, which is one of the reasons we are seeing housing units constructed with a stagnating population change. That will likely continue as the population ages. The City of Victoria, for instance, is less than 2 per housing unit.

I have not read the report, so I have to go with the numbers provided for the time being.

Posted by: owl on October 19 2006 11:02 AM

"one new high school" ????

The kids will be bussed based on recent experience.

Posted by: Harbinger on October 19 2006 10:36 PM

Four people per house, eh? Hmmmmm? Is that one pick up truck and three cars per house or three pick up trucks and one car per house? What a bunch of ninnies. Bus route already in the making? Or will that be an afterthought that won't work? Prince George is not and never will be a bus town. Again, we have ninnies who can't see past the next election.