More than two hours was dedicated to the discussion of the city's new Civic Core Plan at a recent council meeting, and a decision was made - but without input from the groups that would use the space, a local arts leader told The Citizen.
Choosing from two plans developed by staff and a third option proposed by Mayor Yu, council members gave staff the directive to explore the second option.
“There’s something really dysfunctional about what’s happened,” said Eli Klasner, outgoing Community Arts Council of Prince George & District executive director.
“The complete lack of consultation with all of the user groups - ice hockey and the arts - on these concepts that were presented and then at the same time during the council meeting certain decisions were being made about specific design requirements, seating and capacity, etc. I feel like we were being gaslit here. I thought ‘is this really happening?’”
With the proposed second option of the Civic Core Plan under consideration, the Spruce Kings BC Hockey League team that uses Kopar Memorial Arena is in jeopardy because they can't use a space that does not meet BC Hockey League specifications as explained in an in-depth story published in The Citizen recently.
“There is real jeopardy for them because of decisions that were made without any input or advisement from them,” Klasner said.
“Why, why, why did you do it this way? It seems like we know enough in this world about being inclusive and engaging people, building community support but this is the way not to do it. There were so many things that were said and brought forward that just didn’t make any sense.”
In the Civic Core Plan Option 2 there is a small diagram called Performing Arts Centre that states it would have 800 seats.
“That’s not a performing arts centre,” Klasner said. “A performing arts centre has multiple theatres within it. It has significant space for things like rehearsals and set construction, prop storage, and administration.”
What is labelled a Performing Arts Centre on the Civic Core Plan illustration could more accurately be described as a concert hall.
“So why are we starting off right away by using the incorrect terminology?” Klasner asked.
“If you want to build a concert hall, build a concert hall. So right away you’re creating this confusion and you’re going to stymie the entire process now because there’s going to be lots of internal and external conflict about who’s involved and who’s not involved and why.”
Klasner heard a comment at the council meeting that mentioned demolishing the Prince George Playhouse located at the corner of Highway 16 and 97 with the intent to sell the lot to a developer, which was assumed to be a foregone conclusion.
“But OK, so where are you building a new 300-seat theatre to replace the playhouse because there’s a real need for that kind of venue here,” Klasner said.
“So you’re building an 800-seat venue and then we’re going to get rid of the playhouse. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. So then the fact that council then gives staff sort of no instructions on what they want to see as far as a planning process – ‘just start working on designs and technical studies, etc. and then get back to us on this’. No. That’s not how you start a project like this. If I was on council – and thank goodness I’m not - I would’ve said we’re giving you two months and then come back with an outline of what this planning project looks like – we want to see a table of contents, we want to see exactly what you’re studying and we want to see what your community engagement is going to be and most importantly what is the budget for this planning process? I can’t see how they’re going to do all this work for less than a million bucks. And then in the same council meeting 45 minutes was taken up arguing about a $40,000 pilot project for security cameras downtown and then we hear this planning project is just going to be covered by operating costs and I’m thinking well that must be inadequate or you found a pot of gold you’re not telling us about.”
Klasner estimates there’s already been about $200,000 spent to get to this stage of planning the Civic Core District.
And that was only for the two-dimensional diagrams showcased at the meeting that did not include any details.
“So those are the things I think were missed,” Klasner said.
“And I’m also really confused as to why, during that initial council meeting, certain design requirements were provided to admin staff around seating capacity and seating styles, even increasing seating capacity – why did that happen Monday night when the actual user groups and managers of those facilities had no say yet? Something was very strange about that.”
The Community Arts Council has a multi-year operating agreement with the City of Prince George for the Prince George Playhouse.
“So again, it would be nice to actually be part of that conversation,” Klasner said.
It was always understood that once a replacement building was built, the Playhouse would be torn down and the lot would be sold, he added.
“And then we’d would be in a lovely new building,” Klasner said.
“But the 300- to 400-hundred seat theatre was not prescribed in the council meeting so what’s the plan? And that’s why it all feels a little bit gaslighty – we’re thrilled – we are all thrilled that we are going to be moving forward with planning for these new buildings. That couldn’t be better yet the whole process that’s now being prescribed feels so inadequate, so dysfunctional. So you feel really good but then at the same time you feel really terrible and that is not a very comfortable place for all of these major community groups to be put into right now.”
And why isn’t there a plan to enhance the conference and civic centre, Klasner asked.
“We need that in this town,” he said. “Having an enhanced conference and civic centre would be such a beautiful complement to a performing arts centre and a hockey rink. That would be such a wonderful, holistic approach to really activating the space. What a great thing for the PGSO to be able to market to people attending conferences here in Prince George and what about the business community? There’s nothing in here (Civic Core District Plan) that’s about business and growing the business community. Nothing. And why aren’t these buildings more interconnected and laid out in a more holistic way that really satisfies a northern winter climate. It would actually be cheaper to build – fewer walls to build.”
Klasner was part of a citizens' group that presented a report in 2022 to the City of Prince George that created a Civic Core District Plan with input from the user groups that would either use it or be the facilitators of those buildings.
“We did far more consultation than the city has – we met with the user groups, we met with the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Prince George and Lheidli T’enneh and the Prince George Airport Authority,” Klasner said.
“And we were all on the same page. We wanted to see a conference centre slash entertainment complex that had professional space for performances, you could go right into the ice rink area where you could also have trade shows, connected to the conference centre. It was all very holistic and it made sense. I’m frustrated and we’re all angry that all of that research we did has been wilfully ignored.”
Klasner recently asked the city administrative staff who were managing this project for confirmation that the citizens' group report had been passed along to the planners of the Civic Core District.
“The response was ‘what report?’” Klasner stated.
“There’s a number of ways of doing this and all I can say is what was brought to council was so sophomoric and rudimentary – it’s almost like no one looked at any of these other examples and models and structures out there. I’m probably coming off as sounding a bit bitter or sardonic but it kind of felt like somebody came home from school and they did two pretty pictures and then we put them up on the fridge and we said I think this one on the right is prettier. So, admin, go off and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars now to flesh out some details and don’t worry about getting any kind of community support on this or anything. Haven’t we learned enough in this city about how not to do capital projects? Do we just go blindly over the cliff and then litigate after the fact when it’s terrible and it doesn’t work and it’s flawed?”
Klasner used the analogy of people building their customized dream home.
“The sky’s the limit of what you can build,” Klasner said. “You can build a mansion – but what’s the first question asked? What’s our budget? And then you design to suit. The way this is opened up right now city admin could come back in a year with literally a quarter of a billion-dollar price tag on this. It’s not unreasonable that it could get that high. And then what’s the answer? We can’t build that. In other words this was all just a waste of time. It was an academic rhetorical exercise and thank you very much, we’re not going to have anything now. And that’s why when I see them calling that little square box a performing arts centre I see they are already misdirecting this.”
