Prince Rupert Port Authority plans for Park Avenue could one day include potential purchase for buffer between industrial and residential areas

Some land on Park Avenue will soon be the subject of a public notification
process announced by Prince Rupert City Council

Some change could be coming to an area of land along Park Avenue and one of the region's largest industrial presences could one day be the key element towards future development of it.

As we noted yesterday, the Prince Rupert Port Authority has asked the City of Prince Rupert for a temporary use permit for a portion of the land found on the west side of the city near the Fairview Container Terminal Facility.

The request, which was a late addition added to the City Council Agenda at the start of the Monday night meeting was not posted to the city's agenda page on the website.

When it came to the introduction of the additional item, other than a brief overview from Ms. Rosa Miller, the City's Corporate Administrator and one question related to bylaw process from Councillor Blair Mirau, there was little discussion during the council review to expand on what exactly the plan might be for the land, should the City grant the temporary use permit.

Following the Council notes on the night, the North Coast Review contacted the Prince Rupert Port Authority to see if we could learn a bit more about what may be ahead for the area.

From an email update from  Monika Côté, the Manager of Corporate Communications for PRPA we now have a bit of a thumbnail guide as to what could the future for the mix of industrial and residential land that travels along the eastern side of Park Avenue.

From her correspondence, Ms. Côté notes the main focus for the proposed temporary use request is to allow for minimal disruption to container operations during the next phase of the Fairview expansion project, as well as towards what could the PRPA's longer term interest in the site for possible leasing and/or purchase opportunities.

PRPA is investigating the lease, and potential purchase, of the vacant property on the western end of Park Avenue for the general purposes of ensuring a buffer zone between port-related activity in the Fairview area and neighbouring residential areas, and enabling complementary light industrial uses along Highway 16. 

A temporary use permit has been requested from the City of Prince Rupert to allow industrial activities to be enabled for two years. 

This temporary use will allow the southwest portion of the property to be used as empty container storage to facilitate the Fairview Terminal expansion scheduled to begin later in 2020. 

Temporary container storage will ensure operational disruption during container terminal expansion is minimized by providing congestion relief (i.e. overflow space) if, and when, needed. -- Monika Côte, Prince Rupert Port Authority Manager of Corporate communication

Monday night, the City Council members voted to send the request to the public notification stage, which as part of the engagement process moving forward should help to expand on the information related to the PRPA's plans.

However, while they did move the request towards public notification, no timeline for that process was outlined by Council on Monday.

For more notes on Port related themes see our archive page here.