Council Receives Three Conceptual Plans For PGGCC Lands

Monday, April 14, 2008 10:13 PM

Prince George, B.C. – Prince George City Council has taken a good look at all three neighbourhood concept plans for the land that will soon be vacated by the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. (see previous story)

At right, concept one, the blue area is highway commercial, while the beige area represents residential. The centre green area is golf course, and on the right rim, from top to bottom, there is land for the Pine Centre Mall, then seniors independant living, the existing clubhouse, then a hotel site, and the bottom right corner, in the reddish area, is the "auto mall").

The three plans all call for a mix of residential and commercial development, but there are differences in the amounts.

As presented, the plans call for keeping the existing club house and curling rink, moving the tennis courts to a site adjacent to the Club house, placing a hotel on the existing Roll-a Dome site, moving the Playhouse at a suitable time to a new location, property for an expansion of the Pine Centre mall, an auto mall, residential development, seniors residential, a par three golf course and "consideration for a driving range."

"The concepts are very initial concepts" says Dan Milburn of Longe Range Planning who adds the Pine Valley Golf course would be moved within the property.

"The location of these particular items are just lines on amap that willbe readjusted as we get input from the various stakeholders."

Milburn says there will also be a traffic impact study. Supply Services records show the City has just approved spending $30 thousand dollars for that study.

The plans will be discussed with the public, and the final report will be brought back to Council for consideration.

Milburn says the planning department is very aware of the importance of this property in the community and there will be sign standards, screening and buffering and development standards.

"We are very much looking forward to bringing these concepts to the public"says Milburn.

The open house will take place within 2 to 2 1/2 weeks, and the final report will be brought back to Council a month after that. "We are aware of the time lines of developers and we are trying to work towards that" says Milburn.

Mayor Kinsley says while he understands there are tight time lines, "It is absolutely crucial that we get it right."

The importance of having direction for the development of the property was clear after two potential purchase offers fell flat. In at least one case, the problem was the purchasers plan for the property did not match with what the City envisioned.

The Prince George Golf and Curling Club is already moving forward to develop property west of Foothills Boulevard, north of North Nechako Road.

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Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 10:13 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Runner46 on April 14 2008 10:20 PM

Dan Milburn from long range planning????

Is this a new title???

Posted by: owl on April 14 2008 10:28 PM

Yes .... he took over from Grant Bain. Grant is in Bob Radloff's position as Director of Development Serives and Bob is General Manager of Development Services and Operations.

You were able to read all about it right here on goode olde Opinion 250 about a month ago ..... see what happens when you go on a run around the world ...

;-)

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/8724/3/shuffling+at+city+hall?id=140&st=20

Posted by: Runner46 on April 14 2008 10:29 PM

As a follow up to my question on Dan Milburn, on googling a bit I see that Mr. M. was responsible for current planning up to a month ago, and is no in there for long range planning.

On the City Web site, his old position is currently "vacant" as the Manager of Development Services Administration !!!

Am I missing something, or are these new vacancie?
Has Grant Bain started to make some changes?

Help me Rhonda???

Posted by: Runner46 on April 14 2008 10:30 PM

txs

Posted by: Old Hippy on April 14 2008 11:21 PM

If I'm reading this right we will be getting a used car lot (an auto mall for the politically correct) at the junction of 16 & 97. I hope I'm wrong. PG deserves better than that.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on April 15 2008 8:05 AM

The City never made any money to speak of off Pine Valley, and now they expect private business to tie up all that property and capital again? The cost to run a par 3 downtown would not even give a return for the cost of bare land, never mind the cost to build a par 3. Golf needs cheap land. If it wasn't for the McDermitt family and free access to family logging equipment, Pineless would still be just nine holes.

The city finally makes money off the deal though because they now get to sell Pineless Valley and tax the new Pineless Valley - a win-win for the city. Just force someone else into running a par 3, if they want the rest of the property - smart! Anyone calculate the Return on Investment needed to tie up about 5 mil+?

Taxpayers are better off than the last go around though. The last time the planners looked at Pineless they were considering blowing off a cool $12 mil ($12,000,000.00) on a new par 3 development. Seriously! Now the city is hoping to force someone else to do it. Someone who doesn't see PG's lack of growth as a risky investment. Someone with lots of pocket change, maybe the Casino, will have to step forward.

Posted by: owl on April 15 2008 8:28 AM

The plan you are looking at is a proposed land use plan. It does not speak about land ownership.

There are some interesting dealings here I am assuming. Go back to how the golf course got its property in the first place.

There is a whole other part of this story that still has to come out.

I think Don B quiete rightly excused himself from the meeting since he is a member of the club and the club's interests are likely still at stake with any predetermined land use parcelling of the land.

In Vancouver, or any other fast growing area such as Kelowna, this sort of thing would work quite nicely. A common land use density for the entire site could be moved over to sections of the site so that the density there could be doubled, lets say, and the park/golf/community recreation area would be left over.

That sort of thing has happened recently, for instance, in North Vancouver with respect to the old shipyard area next to Lonsdale Quay.

The problem with our golf course lands, of course, is that there is no density of anything. It is not zoned commercial/residential or any other kind of use at this time so there is nothing to negotiate with.

I would assume that given the intent of locating the par 3 golf course to part of the existing golf course property, the existing par three property becomes part of the new deal.

The other thing it does not say is how much of this concept the golf club agrees with. I am assuming they are in general agreement.

I am not sure whether I missed a story some time back that explains how the golf club can move ahead to develop their new location when they have not received money for the existing facility yet.

Posted by: owl on April 15 2008 8:34 AM

Runner ..... any changes made in this go around at the game of musical chairs were made by the City Manager.

The interpretation of those changes is left to the reader. Of course, some of the lines are blurred, and some of the pages are torn out of the book so it is hard to read.

Or maybe its like a poem. There are many interpretations.

;-)

Posted by: NMG on April 15 2008 9:23 AM

For what it's worth, a Par 3 course on the old PGGCC lands would likely be a MUCH MUCH MUCH nicer facility than the Pine Valley course.

It would most likely cater to current Pine Valley customers and golfers who would've never played Pine Valley. If they can maintain the course in a suitable manner, it would walk all over Pine Valley as a Par 3 facility and based on that alone, it would almost certainly be a much more attractive business undertaking than Pine Valley ever was.

Posted by: owl on April 15 2008 8:52 PM

I think that if that ever gets built, then it should be for more than just golfers.

Cross country ski trails, for instance, could be laid out and maintained over the winter months. In fact, parts of the irrigation system could even be kept open over the winter to provide some artifical snow oin those trails which could be developed between the fairways so that the quality of the grass is not compromised.

A large water feature or two could be kept relatively shallow and be used as a frozen pond or two for skating in the winter. Those too could be artificially frozen, I am sure.

I think that large a tract of land for a single special interest group should be made available for more uses in such an urban location.

Posted by: NMG on April 15 2008 11:01 PM

Agree 100% owl. It would be simple to do and would certainly add to the development. There would be more than enough area to accomodate it as well.

Posted by: tinyapplecork on April 16 2008 1:20 AM

My concern is with the small allotment given to senior residential. Our population is aging. I think they would be wise to allot at minimum 12 acres to seniors and shrink the medium density allotment to accomodate. It would allow for easier recreational access to seniors. My grandfather always went crosscountry skiing at his local golf course in the winter. He had commented one time at how thankful he was that the planners of his community zoned this type of residential close to a golf course so he wouldn't have to drive it. He would slap on his skis and make his way to the trails.

:)

Posted by: lostfaith on April 16 2008 9:39 AM

LMAO, look at you all trying to figure out how you can spend all my money on new stuff. You should all be talking about how to spend my money on fixing the junk we already have thats falling apart.
Ya think?

Posted by: Foo738 on April 16 2008 11:47 AM

I like the idea of cross country skiing, skating ponds and other uses for many people. The golfers will be moving to a big course if they can ever afford it. I think they're nuts, don't know a good thing when they had it.
I like, too, more residential one storey housing for seniors with walkways and small gardens.
Could be a great City if there were some accessible areas for the seniors who have paid their dues.