A Prince George neighbourhood might lose about half of its park, but could end up with a spruced up - though smaller - space.
On Thursday night, city staff briefed neighbours of Ron Brent park on a potential multi-family development coming to the area, behind Gateway Lodge.
According to planning and development general manager Ian Wells, the city has entered into a contract to pursue the sale of 1.86 hectares of land, conditional on a successful approval and rezoning by city council, to Kamloops-based developer A&T Ventures.
About 0.7 hectares would have to be rezoned from park to multiple residential to add on to the property that was already rezoned about seven years ago as part of the Gateway project.
The proposed project consists of 173 units - a mixture of market rental, affordable rental and condominiums for purchase, said Wells.
A similar project in Kamloops by the same developer, RiverBend Seniors Community, was completed in 2011. It was a $33 million project that consists of a four-storey building with 66 social housing units and 99 private, market-value suites.
Thursday's meeting at Ron Brent elementary school was two-pronged: telling neighbours about the proposal as well as collecting feedback on how the park is currently used and what improvements they'd like to see.
"We've been directed, and we put policy in place, that any parkland sale goes either to the acquisition of parks or the enhancement of existing parks," said Wells.
Comments from some of the roughly two-dozen residents in attendance ranged from support for having potential park improvements, to not knowing Ron Brent park was a public park as opposed to only a school yard, to being adamantly opposed to losing any green space.
The meeting with the neighbourhood was the first step, said Wells. If the project passes first and second reading at council, there will be a public meeting regarding the official community plan change and a public hearing for the rezoning before it gets third reading and final approval.
"When it's city land, we take it to a higher standard, so we go to the neighbourhood before we proceed with rezoning just to gather their comments," said Wells.
