At Monday night's City Council meeting, Mayor Lyn Hall presented a recommendation from councillors Garth Frizzell, Brian Skakun and Susan Scott, to rescind the first two readings of a bylaw which would have resulted in therezoning of a parcel of land at Foothills Boulevard and 18th Avenue to allow the construction of an operations and maintenance facility for BC Transit.
The "preferred location," as it was called, did not sit well with what quickly became a vociferous public outcry when the proposal hit the local media. It became evident, especially in the social media of Facebook, that under no circumstance was that public going to sit back and watch this happen.
As indicated in my column of March 8, I too was very opposed to this notion. It made absolutely no sense to me to put industry in a much-used, traditional greenspace.
The big issue was the loss of that greenspace adjacent to the recently-completed paved portion of the UNBC connector trail via Ginter's Meadow. The trail, including many adjacent, meandering, walking and jogging trails, is widely used. It is even singled out in the newest Prince George Tourism publication.
Equestrians often enjoy a nice country-side ride with their steed stabled in the paddocks at the adjacent exhibition grounds. It is home to many wild, four legged creatures such as fox, moose and even bears. While many people walk with their dogs, they are not the only users of the trail.
The Cranbrook Hill escarpment is one of the major visible geographic features of Prince George, along with the cutbanks, Connaught Hill and, of course, our two rivers. Simply put, the potential increase of local air pollution, early morning and late-night noise, as well as traffic and the simple visible interruption of an urban nature legacy, were all considered to be incompatible by the community.
The public jumped all over this one in huge numbers, including concerned folks from outside Prince George who also enjoy the area.
Folks came out in droves to a public information session where they were very vocal with their concerns.
Petitions were gathered with about 5,000 signatures. I believe that number was unprecedented in Prince George. Fewer signatures than that would defeat an alternate approval process for borrowing bylaws.
Mayor and council made themselves available to chat and were inundated with feedback from the public. Some well-meaning folks even got a tad carried away.
The bottom line, in the end, is that mayor and council did listen!
Kuddos to Mayor Hall for taking this issue, at its dying end, to move it along rather than waiting for the several weeks longer process required to repeal the first two readings by the councillors without his help.
Mayor Hall, in praising the passion and involvement of the community, took the opportunity to let people know that while this was a very difficult issue for the community, he does not think that this is the last one.
Mayor Hall has asked administration to work with BC Transit to find an alternatelocation for the$23 million facility. While we were told at the beginning that a new transit facility would have to be completed by March 2019 to receive federal and provincial funding, we were not told whether there has been an extension to that deadline.
I have often said that if you have an issue, go to the source with your concerns.
Don't fret. It's not healthy. Do not be afraid to speak your mind.
Prince George is your community. Your vision of this community came through loud and clear during the MyPG process which generated the current Official Community Plan. That gave city hall its direction.
With such passion, Prince George can only get better.
Thank you to all of those who pounded the pavement to gather the community's concerns.
You spoke and were listened to.
Please don't stop.
