BC Housing plans for Kootenay Avenue set for forward progress tonight

The scope of proposed expansion to the housing stock
along Kootenay Avenue returns to City Council tonight

A proposed expansion of housing on stock on the city's west side will be one of the feature events for tonights Prince Rupert Council session, as the BC Housing plans for the Kootenay/McKay area come up for another look over by City Council, with city staff providing a recommendation to take the topic forward to a public hearing.

The background on tonight's review can be found from the Agenda package for tonight's Council session see page 29, which includes a Report from the City Manager Robert Long.

Mr. Long has taken on the duties of the city planner, while the planners position remains vacant, though such is the process for the BC Housing plans that former City Planner Zeno Krekic's name is the direction for the original notification of the plans back in 2019.

City Council last reviewed the proposal in July, indicating at the time that they expected a wide ranging consultation with the public to take place related to the plans. 

Towards that McElhanney Engineering which is steering the project through the process provided for information packages for residences in the immediate area of the proposed expansion of housing, though at the time of that consultation, some residents did seem to believe that the reach of that information campaign should have been expanded.

As it is, much like the proposal for a container storage proposal for the Park Avenue area, there has reportedly been some concern expressed from some residents of the Kootenay area over the relay of notice on the plans, as well as the scope of the BC Housing project and the increase in density that it will provide, with petitions making their way around the west side neighbourhood to signify some of that concern.

Likewise, those Council members who in the past have warned of letting COVID become a reason to limit public interaction on major issues, may wish to reinforce the need to find some way to allow for the full public comment on the process, to ensure that all voices in the community are heard towards the proposed project.

All of which should make for some of the review that Council will be expected to make tonight prior to any decision on the timing of a Public hearing.

 You can review some of the notes on the Housing plan over the last year below:

August 2020 -- Kootenay Avenue Housing plans now up for neighbourhood consultation

June 2020 -- Kootenay/McKay area residents await roll out of information on Housing proposal

May 2020 -- Council to use Second reading of zoning amendment for a review towards need for a Public Hearing on Social Housing proposal

May 2020 -- Kootenay Avenue site proposed for new 55 unit multi family residential development

More notes on Housing can be reviewed here.

A look at what's ahead for tonight's Prince Rupert City Council session can be found here.

More notes on City Council Discussion themes can be examined from our Council Discussion page.

City Council Preview: Monday, September 14, 2020

With Council members set to put aside a week of time for their virtual UBCM convention going next week, though without the required travel owing to COVID, tonight's only council session for September may be a fairly short affair

There are only a few items of note on the Agenda for this evenings session, most of them property variance related items, along with another review of the BC Housing plans for expanded housing on Kootenay Avenue and the prospect of hosting a Public Hearing on the topic.

Council will also make the final moves towards securing loan authorization for the Water Dam and Landfill projects.

Those with an interest in tonight's council session can view the Live Feed from the City website. or on Cable Television from CityWest Cable Channel 10/310.

Council members will also continue to make use of the Closed Council process this evening, as they meet tonight in a Special Closed Session at 5PM citing two items from the Community Charter as the reason to exclude the public.

90.1  (c) labour relations or other employee relations

(g) litigation or potential litigation affecting the municipality

Tonight's Closed session will mark the twelfth time that Council has hosted a public excluded session so far this year.

You can review the Regular Council Agenda here.


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REGULAR SESSION OF CITY COUNCIL

Adoption of Agenda and Past minutes -- Mayor Brain will review the agenda for the evening and Council will adopt the minutes of past meetings.

Resolutions

Application for Development Variance Permit - 1715 Kootenay Avenue -- Council will review the recommendation to approve the variance permit and proceed to final approval (See page 11 of the Agenda)

Application for Development Variance Permit - 212 0th Avenue West -- Council will review the recommendation to approve the variance permit and proceed to final approval (See page  14 of the Agenda)

Bylaws

Report from the Corporate Administrator -- Re: Woodworth Dam Replacement Loan Authorization Bylaw No.  3433, 2019 and Solid Waste Infrastructure Loan Authorization Bylaw No.  3454, 2020 (See page 21 of the Agenda)

Report from the City Manager -- Re: Zoning Amendment Bylaw for the BC Housing proposal for the Kootenay/McKay area of the city. Council will receive a recommendation from the City Manager to proceed with a Public Hearing in accordance with Development Procedures Bylaw Number 3425, 2018  (See page 29 of the Agenda)

The evening will come to an end with any Additional Items as well as Reports, Questions and Inquiries from Members of Council.

Council members can  take advantage of the period to offer up any items or concerns that they have for consideration on the night.

The Live broadcast of the City Council session can be found here, a video archive of past sessions is available here.

Our items of note related to the  September 14th session can be reviewed here.  

While our archive of all sessions for 2020 for Council is available here.


To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

City Council Session: Monday, September 14, 2020

Our archive of items from the session can be found below.

Regular Session of Council for  Monday, September 14 2020

Home page and archive of sessions can be found here.

Live Broadcast of session can be found here

Agenda for the Regular Council Session for September 14, 2020

                     

Preview of Council Session for September 14 ,2020

Attendance

Mayor Lee Brain -- Present
Councillor Nick Adey --  Present
Councillor Barry Cunningham --  Present (By Phone)

Councillor Blair Mirau -- Present (By Phone)
Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven --  Present
Councillor Wade Niesh --  Present
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa --  Present

Minutes of Regular Session of Council,  Monday, September 14, 2020
(not available yet)

Video Recording of  September 14 2020 Council Session

Council Timeline, Monday, September 14, 2020

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North Coast Review Items related to the September 14, 2020 Session of Council 

Council to review enforcement policies on containers in light industrial area

Meetings the focus for Mayor, Council and Senior Staff as UBCM approaches

Province of BC to City of Prince Rupert: On Conservation Service officer for the city; not enough frequency of calls to warrant position 

BC Housing's Kootenay Avenue plans to come back to Council later this year, following proponents 'adjustments'

Approval anticipated tonight for City's Temporary Borrowing Bylaws for Woodworth Dam and Solid Waste Infrastructure projects

BC Housing plans for Kootenay Avenue set for forward progress tonight

Further notes, as well as any Media items from other sources for the September 14, 2020 session can be found in our Discussion Points from City Council feature.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Special Air Quality Statement remains in effect for North Coast - coastal regions

Much of British Columbia is now under
A Special Air Quality Advisory related to
the forest fires of the Western United States
(from the BC Gov't)

While some cooling winds and a few showers may have offered a bit of relief overnight, as the day clears and the sun returns Prince Rupert and the North Coast - coastal regions along with Haida Gwaii will remain for now under a Special Air Quality Statement advisory from Environment Canada.

As we outlined on Friday afternoon, the growing forest infernos of Washington State, Oregon and California will now continue to deliver an impact on the North Coast over the next 24 to 72 hours, with Environment Canada issuing an update to their Special Air Quality Statement for the region as of early this morning

In their advisory, Environment Canada notes that smoke impacts due to long-range transport from wildfires in the western United States have already been observed in some areas of Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, and portions of the Interior. Smoke forecast models indicated the potential for a significant push of smoke into BC over the weekend just passed. 

The anticipated smoke trajectory indicates that the areas impacted could grow to the north and east as the week progresses.

 

click to enlarge

You can access more details related to the environmental event from the Smokey Skies bulletin for Monday, September 14th, an update by the Province for that alert is anticipated later today. 

Included in their information notes are these guidelines for British Columbians as the air quality situation evolves over the weekend.

Click to enlarge

As we noted on Friday, the wet weather of the Northwest over the summer has significantly reduced our risk of forest fires along the Highway 16 corridor,  however the vast amount wildfires in the Western US continues to  impact British Columbia, a situation anticipated to carry on for a bit yet.

More items of note on Unusual weather situations for the Northwest can be explored through our archive page here.

Real Estate Tracker: Week ending September 13, 2020

There was no change to our list of ten this week, as the top end homes remains fairly consistent with the late summer findings.

Every Monday, we look over the listing prices of the week just passed and outline the Top 10 asking prices in the area, providing a snap shot as to where the Real Estate market may be trending on a week-to-week basis.

The listings below are purely for information purposes, for further background on the properties recorded, see our links page for access to the individual real estate listings.

The Archive for our weekly review can be found here.

Our list of the top ten priced homes for the week ending September 13, 2020 can be explored below:

Real Estate listings on the East Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending September 13, 2020

Real Estate listings on the West Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending September 13 2020

From this weeks arrangement of the top end of the listings, there are three properties on the east side of McBride as part the review, seven to the west.

The total value of the list of ten now sits at just under the 7.5 million dollar mark, marking much of the same value as last week.

The lowest mark for the list of ten  sits  at $549,000 while our top end from the last week now is marked  at the price point of  $1,290,000

Below find our findings as of the Week ending September 13, 2020

1824 Graham Avenue                    $1,290,000 -- Realty Executives 

2060 Graham Avenue                    $955,000  --   Realty Executives

2050 Atlin Avenue                         $849,000 --    Realty Executives 

508 Cassiar Avenue                       $685,000 --    Remax

1714 Sloan Avenue                        $649,000 --    Remax
1933 Graham Avenue                    $649,000 --    Remax
1928 Graham Avenue                    $645,000 --    Remax

251 Parker Drive                            $570,000 --    Realty Executives

1068 6th Avenue East                     $569,000 --    Remax

253 Parker Drive                             $549,000 --    Realty Executives
 

For more items related to Real Estate see our archive page here.

For background on Housing issues in the region see our past items here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Blog Watching: Week ending September 13, 2020

A pair of case files from the Prince Rupert detachment of the RCMP made for some of the most read items of the week, with the investigation into the discovery of found remains at Moresby Park and the shooting by members of a wandering bear in the city dominated much of the interest over the last seven days.

Also catching the attention of our readers this week, the release of more background for the return to school in Prince Rupert and the successful conclusion for the search for an executive director for the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce.

The week ended with Environment Canada issuing a Special Air Quality Advisory as smoke from wildfires in the Western United States began to encroach into the North Coast region by Friday evening.

However, when it came to the most read item of the last week, the announcement of the discover of found remains at Moresby Park proved to be the item to generate the most interest.

Prince Rupert RCMP at Moresby Park on Found Remains case file -- The Prince Rupert RCMP, Terrace Dog Service and the BC Coroners office were all on site in Moresby Park last week after clothing articles led to the discovery of human remains in the park    (posted  September 11, 2020)

That article was followed by:

Chamber sings praises of Janet Song as new Interim Executive Director -- The Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce did not have to look too far to find a replacement for the outgoing director Anthony Yecyec, announcing that Janet Song, who had been working with the Chamber this year will take on the duties as Interim Executive Director (posted September 10, 2020)

Wanted Man Recaptured by Prince Rupert RCMP -- Local Mounties located a a Prince Rupert  resident who had escaped lawful capture last week, locating him on the city's east side on Tuesday.  (posted  September 8, 2020 )

SD52 outlines further Return to School information and Options -- The post Labour Day period brought an update from SD52 as to what the return to class would like for students, staff, parents and guardians.  (posted September 8, 2020)

Special Air Quality Statement in effect for North Coast - Coastal Regions -- The impact of the wildfires of the Western United States are now being felt on the North Coast with Environment Canada issuing a Special Air Quality Statement on Friday (posted September 11, 2020)

You can find our weekly Blog watching feature posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, making for a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

You can also review the full listings of the week just past, from our Blog Archive index page found on the right hand side of the page.

For those looking for updates to items as they are posted to the blog, don't forget about our email alert access.

A daily review of the latest items on the blog can be delivered to your email in box, simply by entering your email address into the information bar, items posted to the blog will be delivered to your e-mail account each day.

You can find the link to that feature on the upper, right hand side of the blog. It can be found underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

As well, those who use Twitter can get updates as we post new items from our twitter feed

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching  can be found here.

To view the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Special Air Quality Statement in effect for North Coast Coastal regions

Much of British Columbia is now under
A Special Air Quality Advisory related to
the forest fires of the Western United States
(from the BC Gov't)

The growing forest infernos of Washington State, Oregon and California will deliver an impact on the North Coast over the next 24 to 72 hours, with Environment Canada issuing a Special Air Quality Statement for the region as of late Friday afternoon.

In their advisory, Environment Canada notes that smoke impacts due to long-range transport from wildfires in the western United States have already been observed in some areas of Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, and portions of the Interior. Smoke forecast models indicate the potential for a significant push of smoke into BC throughout the weekend. 

The anticipated smoke trajectory indicates that the areas impacted will grow to the north and east as the weekend progresses with the most widespread impacts expected on Sunday.

Click to enlarge

You can access more details related to the environmental event for the weekend from the Smoky Skies Bulletin for Friday, September 11th here.

Included in their information notes are these guidelines for British Columbians as the air quality situation evolves over the weekend.

Click to enlarge

As we noted earlier today, the wet weather of the Northwest over the summer has significantly reduced our risk of forest fires along the Highway 16 corridor, though the ways of the winds clearly will deliver some impact from fires far beyond our control for the next few days.

More items of note on Unusual weather situations for the Northwest can be explored through our archive page here.