By Tommy Osborne

City Council

City Council recap: Public hearing dominates City Council as debate around new community development continues

Dec 2, 2024 | 10:36 PM

*More details on the stories in the recap will be published in the following days*

PRINCE GEORGE – December 2’s City Council meeting was a busy one, as City Council engaged in several long discussions, with a public hearing being the main discussion point.

Development regarding potential new housing being built in the area of 8640 St. Lawrence Avenue and 2800 Vista Ridge Drive was open to a public hearing today, where several community members spoke up regarding concerns with the City’s plan. Among other things, traffic and density, alongside road plans, were the key issues. Several community members believe the plans as is don’t account for community specific issues, such as icy hills that would become a nightmare should more four way stops be installed. However, the applicants, being L and M Engineering, say its plan and traffic studies done are all up to code. Several City Councillors shared these concerns, but several others spoke of the importance of building housing during an ongoing housing crisis.

City Council voted in favour of moving forward with continuing to discuss this development, which will include public surveys, city council meetings, forums, and more as planning continues.

Also discussed was potentially expanding access to public bathrooms. A big component of this would be expanding monitoring services for areas like St. Vincent de Paul, the Fire Pit, AWAC, Canada Games Plaza. The reasons in favour of this is to provide our unhoused population with wider access to bathrooms, and Canada Games Plaza would be beneficial for the whole community. All councillors supported a motion to further discuss how this would be implemented, but several concerns were raised. Among them, Councillor Brian Skakun said the last time the Canada Games Plaza bathrooms were opened, he said the “destruction” of the bathrooms and the area was a disaster. Because of this, he would want to ensure the rollout of these bathrooms would be far safer and more controlled than before. Councillor Kyle Sampson agreed with Skakun, and Sampson added he would like to explore what funding for the organizations like AWAC, St. Vincent de Paul, and the Fire Pit would look like. He says these organizations already receive a lot of funding, and would like to explore other ways to make the bathrooms accessible first, prior to committing to more funding.

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Finally, the potential development of a Youth Council was brought forward by the Young Politicians of Canada Group. This Youth Council would see members ranging from 16-24 year old be an active voice in council. The Young Politicians of Canada Group Director of Operations Manaaim Somani believes this would be a fantastic way to not only give City Council the youth perspective on issues surrounding our city, but also give the youth involved a chance to learn and grow under our current council to help shape our future leaders.

All councillors were in favour of the idea of getting youth more involved, although the specific ways to do so were debated. For example, Councillor Kyle Sampson believes the idea of having a Youth Council sit at a separate table and then come to Council with ideas may not be the best way to get the youth of Prince George involved. Rather, he would rather look into ways to make running for City Council far more accessible for younger people. Councillor Cori Ramsay agreed with this, adding she would rather see a mentorship program rather than a youth council.

More details on these stories will be made available in the coming days.

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