Vacant land? Usually means there is a problem of some sort. Investors work on market and risk. Seems the city has priced themselves too high, or is demanding too many conditions that have to be added to the capital costs. Stuff that the tax payers of the city should be paying for as it becomes a city asset.

They have a development plan and now they are looking for input from the tax payer. Why did they waist tax dollars on the plan and isnt there an OCP plan in place already. I guess its election time and now they are trying to be nice to us.
Maybe they could build another gas station or a pub.

I live across the street from this lot and have often thought about that.

I don't think retail would do well there because the area is well served by the other strip malls and nobody wants a blight in the future if they have vacancies like at 5th and Ospika.

Clearly the old folks home is a success on that lot , and what ever goes in should be complimentary to that I would think.

Some ideas I thought of in the past were a community hockey rink and curling club next to DP Todd along with high end condo's along 5th Avenue.

I think a large scale retail developement or low end housing would meet serious opposition from the community. The community already has a nice mix of low end housing and any more would jeopordize the community atmosphere. Retail like I say is already developed for a neighborhood of this population, and so that leaves residential and recreation as the real only two alternatives.

I would say if there was to be any retail it should have been done at 5th and Foothills where the Islamic Temple is going in and not at 5th and Tabor.

Time Will Tell

I wonder what makes a special walkway different from an ordinary walkway.

Will it be paved so I can use my pogostick? :-)

Another interesting thing to note ... we now appear to have lawyers practicing town planning, architecture, engineering ..... wonder what the law society would say if town planners, architects and engineers were to start practicing law and suggesting how to conduct cases?

Who are these people? Anyone from this community? And what is this SMART growth thing? Just some more jargon to pretend that the development is "environmentally sound", I am sure.

I would say it is just another variation of a decades old PUD (Planned Unit Development) which, in turn, is another way of saying comprehensive development zoning.

This property has sat there for a long time, until the new senior's apartment complex was built. It is time to put it on the market as a PUD and see what developers come out of the woodworks. However, I do not see developers rushing to it since this city is still not growing in population to the extent that this type of property can be developed fully in the short term.

Owl I agre no development there is probably the best case scenario for the time being. If PG had the grow rate capable of developing the property the way it should be developed then that would be the time to look at this piece of property otherwise what's done is done and I don't think the neighborhood is really eger to see it developed anyways. Its always been kind of nice living in a great neighborhood that is full of potential and yet has the possibility of becoming even better. If that property is developed wrong that could all be lost IMO.

Actually, if there were to be any amount of commercial retail in the area in question, the corner of Tabor and 5th would be far superior since it would be more central to the area it would serve. Anything sitting on foothils can be looked at as "single loaded" access. That location is much better for something like a church which draws from a community much larger than the 15th avenue north community between foothils and ospika. Foothills is an ideal arterial road access for the proposed church.

The city usually stumbles all over itself when it tries to adapt its zoned areas to the needs of the residential/commercial community. My employer tried to relocate into a similar building to what we now exist a couple years ago, but because the areas was zoned 'light industrial' and we were deemed ineligible for such a zoning classification (even tho our main client was less than 200 yards down the street - go figger) they prevented us from purchasing the building and moving in.

"The City of Prince George is open for Business!" - yeah... riiiight.

Owl I disagree as Foothills serves everyone from Miworth to North Nechako, to the Hart and Chief Lake Road. Thats a lot more through traffic than 5th and Tabor for sure.

I always figured 5th and Foothills would be idea for a feed supply retailer serving the farming community of Cranbrook Hill, Miworth, and Chief Lake Road.

5th and Tabor can not support anymore retail without hurting the existing retailers and that is a fact known from experience.

As you say, Chadermando, Foothills serves a much larger area. In fact, once it gets completed to connect with Ferry, it is a "ring" road of sorts, the only one this community has.

An Islamic Temple will serve all of Prince George and properly belongs on such an access.

The 5th and Tabor site was originally planned for another shopping Centre which would likely have included a grocery store of the Save-on-foods size. Think College Heights Shopping Centre.

That was at a time when 5th avenue was also looked upon as being connected to the top of Cranbrook hill to replace the existing connection.

Things change, growth rates projected in those days did not come about and development went in differnt directions. We live in a "free" society and plans developed in offces and City Halls typically change over time to address current wants and needs as they come along.

The site in question is a hold out from those days.

Downtown people will kill me for this, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with providing office space in that location as well. If one thinks about compact communities and cost of transportation, it makes emminent sense to spread offices into such centres close to where people live so that they can walk or bike to work for part of the year at least.

Look at what is happening at 15th and Central. There are offices going in there as well.

Ground-oriented higher density housing mixed with some low rise apartments along with some on-site services such as day care and community recreation facilties sounds like one option.

I would like to see the ground-oreinted higher density to include secondary suites which could be rented out or live-in parent suites as ell as home based businesses with convenient at grade entry. There is none of that in PG that I am aware of, but has been built in some other Canadian cities over the past two decades.

Granny suites have also been quite popular in Australia for some years.

So I see most of you agree it should stay empty. After all it has been empty because of the city planning and no one has a problem with that? Seems most of the postings could fit right in at city hall or on city council. This city certainly doesn't need investors getting any ideas of their own!