India Avenue Housing Proposal gets Council approval, but not without controversy

The proposed Housing development for India Avenue consumed a good portion of Prince Rupert City Council's attention at last weeks Council session, with the project subject to both a Public Hearing and then a final vote on zoning issues and permit applications.

And while in the end City Council voted to approve the proposed redevelopment of the old Bethel Baptist Church, the evening did have some moments of controversy on the way to that vote.

The process started with a Public Hearing, where Council received an overview from the City Planner recapping the process to this point and providing some background on the proposed development to convert the old Church into executive suites housing.

As part of that process, Council heard concerns from one resident of the area, who urged Council to turn down the application, as well Council received comments of support from the proposed development from one of the city's Realtors.

Geoff Greenwell of 2G the developers of the project, also offered up some commentary related to the concerns expressed and what he has planned for the development.

The Public Hearing portion of the process can be viewed from the City's Video Archive from the beginning of the session until about the 22 minute mark.



Later in the evening, Council then moved on to consider the zoning amendment and other aspects of the proposed development, which is where things became a little heated.

For the most part of the discussion phase of the review of the proposal, Council members addressed a range of topics, the majority of them related to parking issues on the site and the number of residents that would be living in the 17 suites to be developed.

Those were key issues of concern for both Councillor Cunningham and Councillor Niesh, who both asked a number of questions and made numerous observations related to the congestion that they fear will come from development of the site.

The area of the evening's discussion that has now become the talk of the town arrived as the vote neared, as Councillor Niesh outlined a number of his concerns related to the developer and called upon the memories of council members to remember the past when it comes to what the City is promised and what eventually takes place.

In particular Councillor Niesh's thoughts related to the overview of the project from the Mayor and the Councillor's comments related to the proposed development produced some language and inferences that the Mayor took issue with in follow up commentary.

Using the video player above you can review the full discussion related to the India Avenue proposal starting at the 55 minute mark and continuing on until the one hour thirty one minute point.

Councillor Niesh's concerns and the Mayor's subsequent rebuke of his language run from the 1 hour 10 minute mark to the end of the discussion at the 1 hour thirty minute mark.

In the end, Council voted to approve the zoning amendments by a vote of 4-2, moving as well the variance permit and development permit phase of the process.

Councillor Thorkelson then offered up some observations after the sharp words of the discussion between Councillor Niesh and the Mayor.

A more expanded overview of the presentations s related to both the Public Hearing and the Regular Council session discussions on the topic can be found on our City Council Timeline.

Following the vote,  Ms. Thorkelson observed that for the future the City should explore what measures they could use to ensure that what developers say they plan to build is what is finally developed.

Suggesting that it is something that Council should look have a discussion about in the future to avoid such unseemly discussions as to whether Council members believe anyone or not. Putting in place guarantees to be sure that they what they see at the development phase is what they in the end get.

What comes of the exchange between Mayor and Councillor Niesh, as well as the thoughts of the proponent of the development over the commentary on the night remains to be seen.

The evening's session does however highlight that on this particular development, there is somewhat of a split on Council when it comes to some of the aspects of the proposed renovation of the church and what uses may come of it in the future.

Further items related to India avenue proposal can be found from our Housing archive.

More background on Council discussions can be found on our City Council Archive page.

India Avenue housing proposal moves forward to Public Hearing stage

Mr. Geoff Greenwell provided
City Council with an update on his
India Avenue housing proposal

Prince Rupert council received an update from the proponent of a proposed housing development on the east side of the city, as Geoff Greenwell from the  2 G  Group provided a short overview of the steps he has taken to this point to move his project further ahead.

Mr. Greenwell outlined the nature of his plans for the old Bethel Baptist Church, which should he receive the approval of council, will be turned into upscale housing known as the Mountain View Executive Estates.  A seventeen unit housing project that is designed to try and reduce the crunch on housing that might come from increased economic development in the city.

He outlined the nature of the housing in question and addressed a number of concerns from Council members regarding some of the past issues that had been noted about the proposed development.

Among those concerns, issues related to parking and the designation of the project as a boarding house, which as he explained was more the nature of the city's zoning designation than a definition of the proposed development.

You can get a wider overview of his presentation from our City Council timeline feature, as well you can watch the presentation to Council from the City's Video Archive  it starts at the 29 minute make and continues until the 43 minute point.



Later in the Council session, Council heard from the City Planner Zeno Krekic, who provided his final review of the process, making note of his observations on the property in question with his recommendation that, should it should go to the Public Hearing phase once the proponent addresses a few concerns from the Engineering department.

Councillor Thorkelson added one final observation to the process, noting that her earlier concerns regarding the nature of the housing to be created had been satisfied, as she no longer was worried that the project could at some point fall into disrepair.  She noted that at the price point that the proponent had set (1800-2500 per month for rent) she believes that the building would be well maintained into the future.

You can review all of those discussion points from the City's Video archive from the 1 hour eighteen minute mark, the conversation continues on for about ten minutes.

Council in the end voted to approve the second reading of the bylaw and move the process to a Public Hearing, that will taken place prior to the April 27th Council session, schedule to start at 7 PM.

For more items related to Housing in the community see our archive page here.

Additional items from City Council discussions can be found on our archive page.

East side housing proposal faces a number of questions at City Council

East side location of proposed
redevelopment of Bethel Baptist
Church,  creating housing units.

An ambitious project to re-purpose a church on the east side of the city into housing accommodation received its first major review at City Council on Tuesday evening.

As City Planner Zeno Krekic providing Council with an overview of a proposal for the old Bethel Baptist Church property on India Avenue.

Mr. Krekic made use of a number of slides to provide a picture of what the completed renovation would look like, a project that would offer up 18 one bedroom and single room living quarters for workers arriving for potential large industrial projects in the region.

The building which was occasionally referred to as a boarding house like proposal would at some point in the future be re-purposed again to provide housing for Senior Citizens.

Conceptual design of proposed
housing development on east side

Some aspects of the proposed development however met with a bit of a challenge from some on Council, with parking issues forming a good number of the items on note.

As well, Council members had concerns that the potential long term goal of Seniors housing may not be reached, owing to wear and tear on the building in its rental phase, along with the potential for increased cost that may be required to convert the building for Seniors use at a later date.

Mr. Krekic outlined how the two step process for the proposed development would work moving forward, with the proponent required to host an information session at his cost to provide more background on his plans for the building.

While at the same time City Staff would conduct its own internal referrals regarding the project.

As well, the project would require the usual permits and hearing procedures, offering up a number of opportunities for both Council members and the public to ask questions and learn more about the development.

Mr. Krekic also observed that the proposal does fall into line with some of Council's past direction when it comes to re-purposing buildings for housing uses and would provide housing in a time where housing stock is considered tight at the moment.

Councillors Thorkelson, Niesh and Cunningham outlined a few more observations on the proposed development, focused mainly on the boarding house concept, offering up a preference for a direction more suited towards apartment style accommodation for the area.

Those will most likely be issues that come up again as the proposal moves ahead through the civic process, to get that process underway Council gave first reading to the zoning motion on the night, leaving the next step to the proponent to host the required information session regarding the plans.

A full review of the material provided to Council regarding the proposed development can be found on pages 18 - 33 of the Council agenda for Tuesday evening.

The presentation regarding the proposed development, as well as the discussion of issues surrounding it can be reviewed from the City's Video Archive starting at the one hour seventeen minute mark, with Council's review of the project continuing on until the one hour forty four minute point.





A full outline on Council developments can be found on our Council Timeline feature.

We have more background related to Housing issues available on our Archive page.

More items related to City Council discussions can be found on our Council Archive page.