By Tommy Osborne

City Centre Future

City Council begins shaping Prince George’s future

Dec 17, 2024 | 4:53 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Mayor Simon Yu presented his vision for what Prince George’s downtown could look like for generations to come, and it brought plenty of discussion among councillors as to what the future of Prince George could look like.

“It’s a vision of how I see Prince George’s position to the province, to Canada, to North America and to the world. What is our importance as a city?” Yu said.

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Yu believes Prince George can become a leader not just in the province, but perhaps the country in several ways, and he says his vision would revitalize the downtown core and bring many amenities that citizens have long been asking for. These include, but are not limited to:

• A new performing arts centre, which he calls the centrepiece of the development.
• A new Kopar Arena seating 5000.
• A Lheidli T’enneh Plaza built above existing infrastructure like Patricia Boulevard. This space would be connected on the second floor of the Prince George Public Library and the Civic Centre, and would be an open plaza space built over what already exists underneath.
• A new orchestra hall and/or IMAX Theatre.
• An ampitheatre.
• A rapid transit line.
• A new hotel and apartments.

There’s no doubt the plan is ambitious, with Yu admitting it may be “too grandiose for some.” Other councillors, Trudy Klassen among them, described it as “audacious.” Yu disagrees, believing his vision to be one that is both realistic and ambitious for the future of Prince George.

“I know the potential of this city is immense. I think the scale of this project that I proposed, it’s not that audacious. I think it’s the right size for the city of our size, our importance, in decades ahead,” Yu said.

However, council did not agree, as it voted in favour of a separate motion. Brought forward by city staff, council voted for a civic core concept plan that also plans for many upgrades in downtown, although it’s significantly smaller in size and scope compared to the Mayor’s plan.

The plan City Council voted in favour of. Mayor Yu, Councillor Trudy Klassen, and Councillor Brian Skakun voted against it, but the majority won.

While Yu believes his vision is possible with investments from the private sector, the financial feasibility of Yu’s vision was a huge reason why several councillors couldn’t get on board.

“To me, this is a multibillion dollar plan for downtown. It doesn’t seem feasible when you look at, I think the report’s overview of the financial expectations around private business carrying a majority of the funding for this, I just think that’s incredibly unreasonable,” Councillor Cori Ramsay said.

“I think we need to look at something that is more possible with what the realities of our community is,” Councillor Kyle Sampson said.

The plan council voted for was similar to Yu’s plan in that it’s a longterm vision, and it shared many ideas, being:

• A new performing arts centre seating 800
• a new Kopar Arena seating 4500
• Mixed use hotel and mixed use residential
• Creation of a park/open space

After a lengthy discussion surrounding the specifics of the motion, City Council passed a motion that read:

“That Council IDENTIFIES Conceptual Design Option 2 as attached to the report dated November 28,2024 from the Director of Planning and Development titled “Civic Core District Concept Plan Options” as the preferred option and DIRECTS Administration to procure consultant services to prepare detailed site design, servicing feasibility studied (i.e.: sanitary sewer, water, and storm). Parking and pedestrian analysis and renderings: and incorporates the following considerations into the site design:

• Swap location of the proposed hotel and residential building and incorporate the possibility of mixed commercial/residential/hotel on both sites, and possibility of further sale of airspace of the PAC:
• Include a partitioned auditorium with seating of a range of approximately 1400 seats and a multi-purpose use seating system for the Performing Arts Centre: and that the building possibly include a rehearsal/blackbox space:
• Include the arts groups (eg. Studio 2880) in the layout of the site plan:
• Consider the future land use of the Prince George Playhouse property, and:
• Maintain open-ended seating for the Arena with further exploration to help determine the best facility to meet our communities needs.”

While Council voted for the City’s option instead, several councillors applauded Yu for sharing his vision and creating discussion. Councillor Ron Polillo says there are aspects of Yu’s vision he would still like to see incorporated, among them being expanding the new Kopar Arena to 5000 people and the connectivity of Yu’s plan.

“We can use some of that connectivity that he highlighted in his plan and the option that we chose tonight to move forward,” Polillo said.

While the City moved forward and voted in favour of a concept plan, this is the first of many steps that will include public referendums, studies, discussions, and more. No timeline is set, but the hope is to have enough information to make an informed decision in 2025 about where to go next

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