Prince George city council will be going forward with the next steps in the Civic Core District Plan Process.
Council voted in favour of hiring a consultant to prepare options and site designs for the Civic Core District Plan area.
The designs will include the community consultation results from the community round table sessions, pop-up events at markets and an online community survey.
The consultation identified shops and cafes with housing, a performing arts centre and an ice arena as priorities.
Council had three choices; either to seek consultant services to prepare conceptual site designs for the entire area, including replacement of aging infrastructure, focus on specific areas only, or defer the project altogether.
While council ultimately voted in favour of the first option, it was not without an hour-long debate.
“First things first, hire a consultant, get some work done, come back to council, consult with the Community Arts Council and others with some meaningful consultation, and we can make some decisions down the road,” said Coun. Brian Skakun.
“Let's get the experts and now we've got some general directions on where we're going to go. Let's get some actual concepts put together,” said Coun. Garth Frizzell.
Coun. Trudy Klassen then introduced an amendment to specifically include consultation with Studio 2880 and the Spruce Kings in the designs.
However, when it came to a vote, that amendment failed as Coun. Ron Polillo said it would leave out other user groups and consultation was inherent in the motion anyways.
“It's by no means an indication of my lack of support for those to being consulted, they need to be, it's just I believe the amendment narrows in and cuts out other organizations that need to be included as well,” added Coun. Kyle Sampson.
Mayor Simon Yu urged for the project to be delayed entirely, stating the survey conducted was not enough to move forward and it would be a waste of taxpayers money. He said the survey needs to be conducted again.
“It doesn’t really matter which way we go because when the concept comes back a visual survey has to be conducted to ask the citizens do you like the vision of the future of the downtown core,” he said.
Coun. Tim Bennett proposed an amendment to specifically include access to public washrooms in the motion as washrooms were one of the top requested item on the feedback survey.
However, staff said that washrooms would be included in the conceptual design, so when that amendment came to a vote it also failed.
“What we're trying to do through this process is creating a downtown city core district that's going to be all immersive of all things that have been highlighted in our in our survey, which I do think has been valuable,” said Sampson.
Yu asked if there would be another opportunity for public consultation if council chose to hire the consultant.
“The thought is to bring back those designs to council to then narrow it down,” explained Deanna Wasnik, Director of Planning and Development.
She said council would then be able to take those plans to the public and public interest groups for more feedback.
“First we need to procure and create those land plans and council can address administration further for what to consult on.”
When the issue final came to a vote, council unanimously voted in favour of the first option - hiring a consultant to come up with plans for the civic core.
