Ginter’s Green Forever calls on City Council to officially designate area as park ahead of resumed OCP talks

The Official Community Plan is coming back to the Council table at Monday’s meeting.

The group, Ginter’s Green Forever, is calling on City Council and the City to have the Ginter’s Meadow area officially designated as a park.

While the map on page 68 of the plan does not designate the area as a place of current growth priority or future development, the map on page 75 does not designate it as a park or green space.

“We’d like to see some more official recognition that that’s a park,” said Ginter’s Green Forever Member James Steidle.

“Right now it appears, from my understanding of the OCP, it appears that it’s still zoned for infrastructure or roadway possibilities there, so even though they took the roads off the road network map, those roads could be brought back at any point.”

Steidle added it’s a well loved dog park in the city, and people love it the way it is.

“I think we just need to get some more official protection for that,” he said.

“People from all over come to that park, when they visit Prince George, that’s one of the places they go to. It’s got great infrastructure already with the paved walkways there, a lot of people with disabilities go to Ginter’s Green, they did do the roundabout on the other end, there’s a paved parking lot on the other end, I think everything’s pretty good, we just need to take that next step and officially recognize that as an official park.”

Back in August 2022, the group presented to City Council, asking to have the road extensions removed from the Official Community Plan, and to have the area officially designated as a park.

“We filled the chambers of City Hall with people who care about that park, and we were assured that that area would get recognized in the Official Community Plan,” Steidle said.

“Two years later, they don’t even mention Ginter’s Green in that plan whatsoever, the only recognition being taking a couple of roads off of the road network map.”

Steidle said they’d like City Council to provide direction to City Administration at the next meeting on the issue.

Steidle added they’ll take part in a public hearing on the plan, but they hope they don’t have to.

“Once we go to public hearing, Council is just going to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to the plan, they can’t really go in and finesse that plan after they hear from us without triggering a whole other process and basically more public hearings down the road,” he said.

“Nobody really wants to do that, we want to create an efficient process, and not waste council time, and hear from the community and do things that benefit the community in an efficient manner as possible.

During the last meeting on February 3rd, Prince George City Council have first reading to the new Official Community Plan Bylaw, but postponed other votes, including second reading and scheduling a public hearing on the document.