Prince George City Council reconvened the public hearing on the Official Community Plan tonight. (Wednesday)
Roughly 20 speakers voiced their opinions on the document, most of which once again voiced concerns over the loss of green space in the City.
After about two hours, City Council closed the public hearing and began debate.
“I just want to thank the public, whoever’s watching, and most importantly, thanks to all the presenters who came forward to give your thought, your ideas, your criticism, your praise to what is in front of you,” said Mayor Simon Yu.
“A lot of work has gone into this, for a lot of this, this isn’t a one-shot deal, they’ve been working on some of the files for many months, if not years. We as a Council, we take this very seriously, because democracy does not work unless there is participation.”
Following the closure of the public hearing, Council spent an extensive amount of time debating the process of what they would do next.
Yu said he wanted to adjourn the meeting to give time to reflect on what they had heard.
“Something this important, it requires a little bit of time to reflect,” he said.
“This is a public hearing, the hearing is done, we have no more hearing. The next step, we hear from the staff, we heard about the process, and we look at the clock, we need to do the best debate with sharp minds. I personally need a little bit of time to absorb everything.”
“I agree on one point, I came wanting to hold my thoughts and reserve my future comment until after the public hearing on what amendments I was prepared to move forward on,” replied Councillor Kyle Sampson.
“Where, I guess, maybe I differ, Mayor Yu, I felt like the process was laid out and I was prepared to, following the closure of the public hearing, move forward with some things and hear from my colleagues on what things they want to move forward on. I guess I’m a bit at a loss on where we’re at now.”
Following the lengthy debate on process, Council got started on some of their amendments.
It was recommended by Manager of Legislative Services Ethan Anderson that Council request reports back on amendments.
“What I was kind of expecting was that Council would direct staff to come back with a report on proposed amendments to the bylaw,” he explained.
“So it’s not an amendment motion that we’re dealing with right now, we were hoping to report back on proposed amendments from Council, so that we can provide additional information, options, highlight concerns.”
Council voted on and passed motions requesting reports on:
- Rezoning the city-owned property north of Moore’s Meadow to Parks and Recreation,
- Rezoning Ginter’s Green to park land and removing the right-of-way,
- Removing Future Development from the plan along Tyner Boulevard and the escarpment with the exception to the small portion of Endowment Lands for the purpose of building student housing by UNBC,
- Amending Schedule 1: Growth Management in the “City of Prince George Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 9525, 2025”, incorporating the Urban Containment Boundaries outlined as “Urban Area” in Schedule B-4: Growth Management in the “City of Prince George Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 8383, 2011.”
- Recognizing the importance of the Aeronautics Act and advising land use applicants of the airport master plan recommendations,
- Adding the Cowart Malaspina expansion into the Official Community Plan
Following the votes on reports, Council decided to schedule another meeting on the Official Community Plan for Wednesday (April 16th) at 5:00 pm.
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