The Prince George Hospice House Society is laying ground for a future expansion.
During Monday night's meeting, city council passed the first two readings for a rezoning and official community plan change that would allow the Hospice House at the corner of Ferry Avenue and Clapperton Street to purchase an adjacent plot of land.
The Hospice House is proposing to have the currently vacant land to the north redesignated under the OCP from neighbourhood residential to community facility and rezoned from single residential to minor institutional.
The additional land could facilitate the Hospice House growing from 10 palliative care units to 20 beds after an opportunity to purchase the land from its current owner has presented itself, said executive director Donalda Carson.
"We don't have a plan to expand at this moment but we expect at some point in time in future years that Northern Health may need us to," Carson said. "But we're just doing this because we have an opportunity and it would be very wise to already own the property when and if that opportunity shows up."
A public hearing on the application will be held at a future city council meeting.
Carson said she has already reached out to neighbours about the plan and has received positive feedback. Any future expansion of the facility also has to be approved under the provincial Community Care and Assisted Living Act.
The planning department recommended council approve the application, citing Hospice House as generating low traffic, having a sufficient area to screen and buffer the site from neighbours and not negatively impacting the surrounding neighbourhood.
