The City of Prince George held an open event at the Two Rivers Gallery tonight (Tuesday) where residents were given the opportunity to voice a wide range of opinions on the city’s upcoming Official Community Plan (OCP).
Still in the early stages, work on the plan began earlier this year and is not expected to be finalized until August 2024 – it has not been updated since 2011.
Residents were asked broad, general questions – for example, general areas and ideas the city should and should not be moving towards, types of transportation to invest in, and areas around the city to expand or to keep as is.
One of the areas that garnered the most attention was Ginter’s Meadow.
Around half of the roughly 75 attendees who were there at the start of the evening were dressed in green to show support for keeping Ginter’s Meadow as is.
“It feels great to see the green,” James Steidle, an active member of the Keep Ginter’s Green movement, told My PG Now at the gathering. “A lot of people are coming out here to talk about the importance of Ginter’s Green and getting those roads off the OCP.”
The potential paving and development of Ginter’s Meadow and dog park from Ferry Avenue to 18th Avenue, behind the CN Centre, has been a hot topic for around a year now.
When asked about it, mayor Simon Yu said it was his intention to keep the space green while he is in office.
“I want to see it remain a park forever,” Yu told My PG Now. “Even more important for me, I would like to see us as a city develop a very progressive, workable, green space management plan.”
He said he would like to see that plan include tree quotas by acre and by lot, so “when they come to develop the city, they can’t just cut all the trees down and develop a neighbourhood. What makes us special as a people is we have a lot of beautiful trees – this is what Prince George is about.”
“That is very encouraging news,” Steidle said afterwards in response. “Developers aren’t doing developments like they used to. Back in the day they left a lot more trees and green strips behind… now, up on Tyner, they basically clear cut the whole thing.”
While Steidle was happy with what Yu had to say, his faith in the rest of city council was not as strong, saying “the mayor is only one vote, we have to convince the majority of council to go in that same direction and I am not convinced we are going to see that this term.”
As a whole, Yu said he was “very grateful to all the people who came to exercise their vision for the future of Prince George,” saying this plan could impact the next 40-50 years of the city’s development.
“Without hearing from the citizens, we are not going to get this right,” he said. “This is as important as a civic exercise will get.”
You can find out more about the OCP here.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
