There are no suprises here. Will this put a crimp in some of the other projects, like Cranbrook Hill, etc; With a static population in Prince George over the last 10 years, and a projected population growth of 1-2.5% for the next 10/20 years who are all these people that will move into the Bench/Cranbrook Hill/and other new sub-divisions. We can assume that a lot of them will be people who presently live in other areas of the City and move into the new area. This will create some lower cost housing in other areas for younger families to purchase. It will also at some point create a surplus of cheap housing, and rentals which may not be conducive to keeping some areas of the City as nice as they are now.

I suspect that this will have little or no effect on those who will sit atop Cranbrook Hill overlooking the smogbound City below, or those who will be squirriled away in the Fraser Bench., however it will create some problems in the long term.

Its interesting to note that Prince George is hell bent for urban sprawl at the same time that Metropolitan, and some smaller Citys are going in the direction of building higher and closer, not lower and further. Are we 10 years behind the times????

We are more like 20 years behind the times.

The University development is low density .... not much different than College Heights, the Hart, the bowl west of Central, etc.

The Fraser Bench is no different ... nothing smart about it ... It states in the report that the noise level both on the bench and the existing Heights housing will increase just through the removal of the trees. In addition, there is an expected increase in rail movements which will increase the level of the existing noise source.

The air quality report tries to project the levels of air pollution on the bench based on emission increase assumptions. The problem is, we have the MoE and Peter Jackson at UNBC saying they cannot relate the emissions to actual levels of pollution at specific locations. So who is right?

Council bought a report frought with highly questionable assumptions.

But we all knew this would get approval.

What doe this show? That our planning process needs considerable improvement.

What could it mean in the future? If houses get developed there, and people who move in will find after a year or two that it is too noisy and the air is poorer than at their friend's house who bought on Cranbrook Hill, they will sell their house if they can and then let their friends know not to buy there. If that happens, the developer will be holdng a white elephant until things change on the other side of the river.

If they do not find that, or houses there are cheaper than anywhere else in PG for the same size and quality, then people will continue to buy there and I was wrong.

I think it is called "buyer beware".

As someone we all know says: "Time will tell."

People established close to the Fraser Bench are gonna have to walk further to find a place for their pooch to poop. Alas!

You mean this will be a neigbourless subdivision?

;-)

Its the same old story, our City going off in a dozen different directions. In the 70's the prediction was that PG would have 90,000 people in the next decade. We are far short of that prdiction and now you hear stories of PG going to 200,000.

The trend is for larger cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and this is where our people are migrating too for opertunities that dont exist in Prince George. The present generation doesnt care about trees, lakes and mountiains they need cash. As our economy picked up this year did anyone keep track of the number of people that left Prince George compared to how many arrived to live here.

We cant maintain the infrastructure for the present size of our City but the dreams never cease. Untill we make changes at City hall we will continue to muddle through as we have been doing.

Cheers

More water lines, more sewer lines, more pavement, more snow to plow, more schools, more real estate sold, houses built, and of course more decay in the bowl as people move outward. More schools shut down in the bowl.

Good for the construction industry, real estate and developers, and of course ongoing job security for City workers, and planners.

Lefty. At present there are just as many people moving out of PG as there are moving in. Most of these houses will be built and bought by people who are already here. Older people whos houses are paid for, or almost paid for in the Greater Bowl Area, Central Fort George, Hart Hiway etc; will move out to these areas and will either sell their houses to their children or others, or rent them. As more rentals come on stream more houses will fall into disrepair, and we will begin to get more areas such a south of 20th avenue etc;

The Citys population hasnt grown in 10 years so dont expect it to start to-morrow. Most people buying and renting houses now, are people who were 18 years old 10 years ago. Approx 15000 or more. When this crop of buyers and renters runs out, then you will really see a decline in real estate.

Real growth will only come when there are new jobs. Real shrinkage will come when there are fewer jobs.

What will happen I don`t know, but it seems we are in a static position right now.

I think demand will show this development to be a failure. people in Prince George are trending towards moving to where they can breath. This would include the Hart, Foothills, and Upper College Heights and all points west. The polluted parts of the city are going to die if they have not already. For this reason I can see the Cranbrook Hill development doing very well.

I would consider a new home on the Cranbrook Hill neighborhood, where as I would never consider a home on Fraser Bench or East of Central.

And what happens wben the baby boomers retire? We will need that four lane highway south for them to get to places like Kamloops, Kelowna,
Abbotsford or the Island.

Dream on City hall.

Cheers

"When this crop of buyers and renters runs out, then you will really see a decline in real estate."

The development on Hill Street just south of DP Todd, adjacent to 5th, seems to be made up of butt-ugly houses on smaller pieces of property if the first few houses are any indicator. Two storeys plus a basement and a back deck half way off the ground in the towel of a backyard. With 6 foot high fences, you can wave hello to all the neighbours at their grills during the summer.

I understand that the price on these houses will be in the low to mid $300,000 range. If so, it will be interesting to see how well these will do in the market.

Houses with stairs to essentially three floors are not houses older people would typically want. So, these must be for a younger crowd which is a fairly static group for the next two decades or so as far as numbers go. The growing population is the boomers.