Monday night's City Council session brought forward some more questions towards a proposed housing development on Kootenay Avenue, with one resident on the West side of Prince Rupert observing that he and his neighbours still do not know too much about the BC Housing plans currently set to move forward in their area of the city.
The themes of information delivery and community engagement were the subject for a contribution to the City Council Committee of the Whole Session on Monday night, as Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller read out a letter received from resident Richard Casey.
The main thrust of his written presentation to Council, was to request that the City Planner's report related to the proposal be included in any information package to be delivered to the residents of the region.
"At the meeting of May 25th there was a report from Bob Long on zoning change, but none of the City Planner who usually outlines the pros and cons of any zoning change. Mr. Long's report pointed out no cons on this project, I request the planners report to be included in the information to be provided to the taxpayer, I believe there are many drawbacks to this project" -- Prince Rupert resident Richard Casey with questions for Council Monday night
As well Mr. Casey suggested that any questions or comments that are delivered to City Manager Robert Long, along with his replies towards the proposed development, be included as part of an easy to access online record on the city website.
As well the west side resident recommended that the city include a virtual rendering of the proposed site and all elements of the project as part of that website collection.
In reply, the Mayor while not speaking to the suggestion of an easily accessible city hosted online presence for the relay of information, did observe that the process has only just begun.
Noting that the City has only made its first reading, with Mr. Brain also responding that BC housing is just now in the preparation phase and haven't conducted any community engagement yet.
Mayor Brain also added that when that time comes, everyone in the neighbourhood will receive that package, also outlining the city process ahead towards the project.
"At the final, before we approve, there's a public hearing in which everybody in the community has a chance to have a comment, not just the people, the residents. So there will always be an opportunity for people to come forward and mention their concerns and throughout the process of the readings, of which there will be four of them, everyone will have the ability to see renderings and such. So that's on the proponent to provide that and they're just in the beginning stages of that" -- Mayor Lee Brain
The Questions for Council and reply from the Mayor can be viewed from the City's Video Archive starting at the 1 minute mark.
For a wider overview of the proposed housing plans for the Kootenay area see our notes of May 27.
More on past housing initiatives is available here.
Further items of interest from the Monday Council session can be found from our Council Timeline, a wider overview of Council Discussion themes is available here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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