India Avenue housing proposal moves forward to Public Hearing stage

Mr. Geoff Greenwell provided
City Council with an update on his
India Avenue housing proposal

Prince Rupert council received an update from the proponent of a proposed housing development on the east side of the city, as Geoff Greenwell from the  2 G  Group provided a short overview of the steps he has taken to this point to move his project further ahead.

Mr. Greenwell outlined the nature of his plans for the old Bethel Baptist Church, which should he receive the approval of council, will be turned into upscale housing known as the Mountain View Executive Estates.  A seventeen unit housing project that is designed to try and reduce the crunch on housing that might come from increased economic development in the city.

He outlined the nature of the housing in question and addressed a number of concerns from Council members regarding some of the past issues that had been noted about the proposed development.

Among those concerns, issues related to parking and the designation of the project as a boarding house, which as he explained was more the nature of the city's zoning designation than a definition of the proposed development.

You can get a wider overview of his presentation from our City Council timeline feature, as well you can watch the presentation to Council from the City's Video Archive  it starts at the 29 minute make and continues until the 43 minute point.



Later in the Council session, Council heard from the City Planner Zeno Krekic, who provided his final review of the process, making note of his observations on the property in question with his recommendation that, should it should go to the Public Hearing phase once the proponent addresses a few concerns from the Engineering department.

Councillor Thorkelson added one final observation to the process, noting that her earlier concerns regarding the nature of the housing to be created had been satisfied, as she no longer was worried that the project could at some point fall into disrepair.  She noted that at the price point that the proponent had set (1800-2500 per month for rent) she believes that the building would be well maintained into the future.

You can review all of those discussion points from the City's Video archive from the 1 hour eighteen minute mark, the conversation continues on for about ten minutes.

Council in the end voted to approve the second reading of the bylaw and move the process to a Public Hearing, that will taken place prior to the April 27th Council session, schedule to start at 7 PM.

For more items related to Housing in the community see our archive page here.

Additional items from City Council discussions can be found on our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.