Monday night offered a glimpse at what should be an exciting period ahead for redevelopment of much of the city's downtown core and other areas of Prince Rupert, as City Council members received a presentation on the path ahead towards rewriting the community's Official Community Plan.
That project which has seen some of the foundation put in place over the last five months, is being led by consultants from iPlan Planning and Development Services. The OCP review project lead is Rob Buchan who had his first glimpse at the city's plans for the future at the December Rupert 2030 Vision showcase hosted by Mayor Lee Brain.
And while City Council members spoke with much enthusiasm on Monday night towards the chance to rewrite the plans that date back to 2007, there was one significant absence from the party, that of the long serving City Planner Zeno Krekic, who last made a presentation to Council on March 9th.
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| City Planner Zeno Krekic making a presentation on a variance request at the March 9th City Council Session |
The Prince Rumour telegraph has been a busy wire of late, providing a beat to suggest that Mr. Krekic the city's long time planner has taken leave of his duties at City Hall, something that seems plausible with a string of zoning and planning presentations over the last two and half months from Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller.
The popular theme appears to be that of Mr, Krekic having retired from his duties with the City of Prince Rupert, an event that surely is worthy of comment and commemoration from the Mayor and Council after Mr. Krekic's 10 years plus of service to the community.
An email enquiry made last month by the North Coast Review to the city's communications department has still to be responded to (a frequent theme of late) ... so we're inclined to follow the tap tap tap of the Rupert telegraph as to the status for Mr. Krekic.
When it comes to sharing information, City Hall isn't particularly good at communicating news when it comes to staff and internal moves. Whether they be ongoing hires for City Hall posts, or the departure of long time civil servants.
The concept of the Welcome aboard note, or Farewell and thanks for your service observations for long lasting civic administration members is seemingly somewhat alien for the City.
Which brings us full circle back to the Mayor and Council, a collective which have had some opportunities since returning to the their duties after a COVID hiatus in April, to provide a glimpse into the road ahead for the city's ambitious development of the range of vision plans we've received over the years.
Since late March, the work that the public sees when it comes to the planning department has been mostly handled by Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller who reviews the zoning issues, variance requests and such at each public Council session.
A process which is normally followed by little in the way of discussion and even fewer questions from Council members on the themes presented.
The exception to that came at the May 25th Council meeting, following a presentation from Ms. Miller on the plans by BC Housing to add to the Social housing stock in the city in the Kootenay Avenue area.
That topic which could become a tad contentious with the potential for council moving forward without a public hearing, was something which City Manager Robert Long addressed as part of that meeting.
Since that Council session however, the city has not outlined any further notes as to how they plan to proceed on the Kootenay project and what form of engagement with the public that they will put in motion.
Beyond what could be a contentious housing issue for residents for the west side of the city, there are other areas of housing and zoning elements still to come.
One is the ambitious housing project promised by the Lax Kw'alaams Band, a sixty unit proposal for 11th Avenue East, which features a number of other community elements as part of the planning.
The project was highlighted by the Mayor as part of the 2030 Vision plan of December and is one that we have heard little about since.
With much talk of exciting times for the future of Prince Rupert, the prospect of even more land use issues coming to the forefront of discussion would seem likely, with the Mayor putting some significant emphasis on the need for housing in May of this year.
So it might be a welcome thing for residents of the city to know who at City Hall is the contact person when it comes to Planning questions and concerns and which city staffer is keeping watch over the planning department.
For more notes related to housing in Prince Rupert see our archive page here.
A wider overview of past City Council discussion themes can be explored from our Council Discussion page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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