Biggar Place Zoning request to move to Public Hearing August 18th

The process towards rezoning of lots on Biggar Place took another step
forward on Monday at Prince Rupert City Council

The ongoing process towards a potential rezoning of residential land on the fringe of the downtown core moved a bit further on Monday evening, as City Council heard a report from City Planner Zeno Krekic, who outlined the latest notes on the file that could see property on Biggar Place moved into Commercial zoning from its current residential designation and how it fit into the long term development plan for the area.

"The applicant owns a prominent corner on what would be described as Five Corners which is mostly vacant, it is currently designated in the official community plan as R2 residential and  currently zoned in our zoning bylaw as C3 Service commercial"

"This application does two things, it gives the applicant a better development site and from the planning perspective it fits into the long term development plan and can be developed as a comprehensive plan" -- City Planner Zeno Krekic on the Biggar Place rezoning request

He also made note of a public information session that was hosted by the proponents of the zoning change who would like to develop the land for commercial purposes.

The city planner also observed that between interested residents and others in attendance the total participating was seven, with a lively engagement exploring some past road dedication bylaw issues with the only concern raised about any new development is that of height.

Two views of the property on Biggar Place that is the subject
of a potential zoning change from residential to commercial

Councillor Adey asked for some clarification on the concerns over height allocation for the property in question.

"Could you explain a little more what the issues were around height and was there any sense from the developer in terms of how much of the height allocation he was likely to take advantage of" 

In reply Mr. Krekic noted that the current limit seventeen metres which would be five floors, adding at the moment the proponent doesn't have any project in mind for the property.

He did observe that there is a topography difference between the Park Avenue side and the Biggar Place side, with the potential for some views and sight-lines to be affected. Mr. Krekic noted that the majority of the access to the lots would come from the Park Avenue area.

He also noted that any potential development would still have to go through the city's usual process of consideration and development permitting.

With no other questions or comments from Council voted to move the requests forward to a public hearing to take place on August 19th prior to the regular Council session of that night.

On Monday we provided some additional background on the zoning issue, as well as a listing of some of the previous engagements on the file in recent months.

You can review the presentation to Council on the evening from the City's YouTube archive of the night, starting at the twenty four mark.




 For more items of note from Monday's City Council Session see our Council Timeline feature here, as well as our archive of items related to the Monday session here.

A wider overview of Council discussion themes can be found from Council archive here.