Earlier this week, Prince George City Council made their choice to move ahead with the next steps for the Civic Core District Plan.
After more than two hours of debate at Monday’s meeting, City Council voted on the following motion:
That Council IDENTIFIES Conceptual Design Option 2 as attached to the report dated November 28, 2024 from the Director of Planning and Development titled “Civic Core District Concept Plan Options” as the preferred option and DIRECTS Administration to procure consultant services to prepare detailed site design, servicing feasibility studies (i.e.: Sanitary sewer, water, and storm), parking and pedestrian analysis and renderings; and incorporates the following considerations into the site design:
- Swap location of the proposed hotel and residential building, and incorporate the possibility of mixed commercial/residential/hotel on both sites, and possibility of further sale of airspace of the PAC;
- Include a partitioned auditorium with seating of a range of approximately 1400 seats and a multi-purpose use seating system for the Performing Arts Centre; and that the building possibly include a rehearsal/blackbox space;
- Include the arts groups (e.g.: Studio 2880) in the layout of the site plan;
- Consider the future land use of the Prince George Playhouse property; and
- Maintain open-ended seating for the Arena with further exploration to help determine the best facility to meet our communities needs.
Design Option 2 puts the new ice arena in the spot of the current Kopar Memorial Arena and the currently empty lot where the old Fire Hall #1 used to be.
It also puts the new performing arts centre, and either mixed-use residential or a mixed-use hotel in the empty lot next to the Civic Centre that is currently used for parking.
Additionally, mixed-use residential or a mixed-use hotel would be put in the spot where the Knights Inn currently stands.
The vote was not unanimous, as Councillors Brian Skakun and Trudy Klassen were in opposition, as well as Mayor Simon Yu.
“The plan we’ve got, really there wasn’t much there,” Skakun told My PG Now.
“Even if we do what administration presented to us, could be between 200-300 million dollars, that’s a massive amount of money, especially with layoffs in the forest industry, and a number of other things.”
According to Skakun, City Administration has said a 4,500 seat arena will cost a minimum of $100 million.
“Add on the notion to add on another possibly 1,500 or 2,000 seats,” Skakun said.
“The performing arts centre could be, with all the asks, could be anywhere from 75-100 million dollars, especially if we go from 800 to 1,400 seats, the infrastructure upgrades and related to that. By the time we do this the construction costs are going to go up, and everything else, so we’re looking at a future construction cost included in this, it’s easily $250 million.”
“We shouldn’t be spending a single dollar more in study or consultation before we actually do more consultation as a council so that we are better informed as to what our city needs,” Klassen said.
“In my best world, Council will develop a plan to meet with the user groups, especially user groups because they are the ones that are going to be using these spaces, as well as business and investors who would potentially want to be part of a plan like this.”
One user group that will be majorly impacted in a negative way is the Prince George Spruce Kings.
“We just can’t simply with option number two, as they say, tear down Kopar Arena and put a new one in there, because that would be a couple years without a home,” Skakun said.
Spruce Kings General Manager Mike Hawes told My PG Now earlier this week they can’t share an arena with the Cougars because of advertising, and a move to Kin 1 would be a money losing venture for the team.
Projected arena for civic core development could leave @SpruceKings without a temporary home
| https://t.co/hjIwUyI2Ii #cityofpg #PrinceGeorge #northernbc #sports pic.twitter.com/labioEkLko— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) December 17, 2024
“We have to provide a sheet of ice for probably one of the longest serving hockey teams in our community, so my first goal would be, what can we do for them?” Skakun said.
“On top of that, how can we accommodate the arts community with some sort of a performance centre, I don’t know what that looks like, it could be a scaled down one that’s tied into the Civic Centre, because we have all that property there, but we just can’t go with two big standalone projects that will literally cost us hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Klassen said the fact that there is no plan for a convention centre is big, because that’s where the private sector will come in.
“The other thing is the ignorance of the environmental cost and the construction cost of building separate buildings rather than building them in a connected fashion,” she explained.
“The fact that each building is going to be separate means we have all those walls, whereas if these buildings were connected, then there would be shared walls and that would significantly reduce construction costs.”
Additionally, Klassen said there needs to be a long-term plan that takes into account a convention centre, as well as building a space that can be utilized in a winter city.
“When you’re digging in the ground to put in the underground infrastructure, you want to only dig once, because every time you have to dig, there’s an incredible cost,” she said.
“If you can dig once and put in all the infrastructure needed for whatever the plans are for the future or make accommodation for whatever has to go there in the future and ways to gain access, you again are significantly reducing the cost to the taxpayer.”
While Klassen was a supporter of Mayor Yu’s plan, she and the Mayor stated the plan is not the “end all, be all.”
“But the concept of having the convention centre, and the connectiveness where there’s shared walls, and the winter city design in the concept is something that we cannot afford to ignore,” she explained.
“We are not a rich city, we are a poor city, and we have to be incredibly careful about how we spend money, and so the longer term, and more environmentally friendly, more economically sound our plan is, the better for our residents. We don’t have the money to spend on an inferior plan.”
Skakun noted there seems to be a consensus among City Council that the project will go to a referendum, which could be tied to the next municipal election, set for October in 2026.
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