80% of what would be considered affordable housing in PG would be East of the 'bi-pass' and yet IMO its obvious that most of that housing is not attractive to potential newcomers to the city, and thus potentially a large part of PG's stagnation.

I think the car mall zoning thing is highly questionable for such a central location. I think a much better zoning would be for minimum 10-story apartment and condo complexes in a cluster at the proposed car mall location where everything is within walking distance, sufficient distance from pollution, lots of flood-plain clearance, and potential to become a central efficient city transit hub. Nice views from up there I bet. If they built with a reasonable low-cost high-quality in mind I think the units would be an easy sell for a lot of the university students, elderly, new people to town, and the urban types.

I think potential investors would look at it as not having a lot of risk with lots of upside potential. Other places in town maybe not quite so....

What a waste of area ! Leave the playhouse where it is, it can be a drawing card to something in the area other than shopping, especially if residential is built up in the area and with a hotel going in there. Banish the car lot, not needed in such a location

Banish all car lots!
metalman.

Remember to think GREEN. If you build into this idea of user or pedestrian friendly residential and commercial then less vehicles are used. Less emmisions and less people would be overweight, less diabetes and more socializing. Employees could also live and work in thier own neigborhoods.Why not take a section of downtown and do this.Some communities are designed so that anyone can walk less than 15 minutes to do business or shopping.

Until the air gets cleaned up downtown I wouldn't bother investing in housing down there. I purposely moved downtown two years ago with a vision towards staying there but the air is doing me in. Moving back out of the bowl. To the people who can live down there and not wake up in the morning with breathing difficulties I salute you.

I aggree with eagleone .... the car mall hit me right aways as WHY????? where is that going to come from? The autodealers have been building elsewhere. Toyota is the latest one to move. Thew concept of an autoMALL is gone. Several have tried it. We now have several auto minMALLS in PG.

As is so common in PG, the idea comes after people have alreadsy built, not before as planning should be.

And I have not even talked about the actual location on a prominent corner. An autoMALL right next to a hotel ..... what a notion.

Can we get a planner on staff one of these days? Please!!!!!! Before PG goes to hell in a handbasket.

Screech. ... I vote you take over the planning for the City ....... you make tons of sense. If anyone watns to see that in action locally, look at the southern developments in Kelowna.

PG pretrends to put all their shopping and offcies downtown, through their OCP. But, in fact, it does not follow thorugh when someone walks in and says "I am going to build this that or the other thing."

So, create planned developments encompassing residential, office and retail commercial and recreation. This can be a showpiece.

Let's make this a truly SMART development and show people what that means. And put in some desing guidelines which mean something. We must avoid, at all costs such SMART developments (what a misnomer) such as the ghetto which has gone up at Hill street. Absolutely terrible!!!! Everyone in PG should be forced to drive through so that they can see what we must avoid building.

In answer to the question of who will go in the auto maul, try Northland on for size. The scuttlebut is that they are not going to expand west of town.

Was in coquitlam and they have a nice mix of residential bordering on golf courses in the westwood plateau area. WHy not turn the area into a par 3 golf course and incorporate a nice residential area...leave some trees...I'm sure it would be popular if it could be designed as such....

I agree with the others. This piece of land is large enough that it could basically be a completely self-containned neighbourhood.

An auto mall? What a complete waste. I get the sense that the developers simply want to put up the most area consuming developments as quickly as they possibly can. Good for them, TERRIBLE for PG. This project has the potential to be a significant catalyst or showpiece for what could be done in the City. If done properly, it would set an example for what other developers (and future City residents) could expect from and within PG. Instead, we are considering an auto mall and a hotel as primary tennants?

I agree with owl. Let's have this development encompass residential, office, retail and recreation. The foundation is already there for what would be a VERY nice urban park, let's keep that as a "central feature" of the piece of land and develop around it. Let's have something that people want to venture into, instead of driving by.

Build the 4 story condos in the downtown area and along 20th ave. Thats a way to revitalize these areas

Put the Roll-A-Dome on George Street. Give the homeless a place to spend their spare time roller skating and not on the street selling drugs and breaking the law.

But then again, they might take the skates and sell them for drugs. Never mind.

Hey Owl,

That Hill street ghetto you talk about is that the one by 5th and Tabor ? The huge amount of townhouses stuffed into way too small of an area. Course that was ran by the city planners and had the same planning company design that, that does the majority of the developments in town. Maybe that explains the sense of failure in residential design going on.

Well here goes:

I think the golf course should stay exactly where it is. The trees will come back, it is a beautiful spot.

I also think the Pine Valley Course should stay as a par 3. It is very popular.

Green space how great. Car dealerships can never be attractive spaces (so far).

Replant trees in the golf courses and leave them there. Anyone heard of a tree spade? Of course, but it doesn't sound like the either golf course has.

Imorg .... "WHy not turn the area into a par 3 golf course and incorporate a nice residential area."

I think it might be difficult to see on the plan. I looked at all three available on City Hall's Council agenda site. Nice and clear there.

The green area in the centre is exactly waht you are talking about. Each of the three proposals has that as a part of the plan. That will be quite nice.

They also have some images of the types of buildings they would like to see. Certainly SUBSTANTIALLY different from what is going up at Hill street. Closest in town that I can see at the moment is the condo on the north side of sixth avenue west of Vancouver Street. I think the new senior's care unit in the gateway will have that kind of design.

The key, then, becomes the control the city will impose on the development. It certainly has been absent on the 5th and Tabor (Hills street) development.

So, the extension of Pine Centre mall could easily become office oriented as a buffer between the mall and the residential area. The golf club house location which is to include a rebuilf of the tennis courts would also be a good mix with adjacent residential as well as the hotel. However, there is no residential to be found anywhere close to it.

I think the highly visible corner of two major highways intersecting given the mix of use on the site and the location of existing uses which will be remaining, is best use for a combination of a higher quality hotel associated with a club house and good visibility of the golf course which will occupy much of the central part of the property.

I think the cost of visibility to a Northland is far too expensive. In fact, as the ads go, it should be priceless and simply not available to them even if it was a Lamborghini dealership.

A casino on one corner, a car dealership on another. Welcome to PG .......