Up to the New Council to fill in the details on the Seal Cove Residential, Watson Island energy plans

As the new Prince Rupert City Council takes to their work this evening in the first public Council session since their election to office, some farewell business from the previous mayor will offer a potential narrative for the membership in the weeks to come after the take their oaths of office.

Last week, as the eight year term for Mayor Lee Brain was coming to an end, he delivered a pair of farewell vision themes for the new council to pick up the torch on. 

Some of them already involved in the decision making from their time on the previous council, so the returning councillors should be well versed in the scope of the two newest initiatives to add to the 2030 Rupert Vision plan tracker.

Friday gave us the city's plan towards a potential use of the Watson Island Industrial site for energy development,  the City along with local First Nation partners and Pattern energy seemingly exploring the prospect of wind power driven, Hydrogen development.

The statement and the now former Mayor's follow up  Social Media page prominently featuring the words potential, feasible and if ... leaving much still to be explained for city residents and taxpayers as to how it all would work, what it all will cost and how the cost of development will be divided up among the partners.

So hopefully the new Council will have some further background to share long before anyone is talking about cutting any ribbons on Watson Island.

The other Big announcement for Mr. Brain on his way out the door was the rather surprising declaration that housing is in the works for the Seal Cove Quarry area, 

One final opportunity for Mr. Brain to repeat the oft heard mantra of Rupert 2030 Vision plan before he departed from his post. 

Land at the Seal Cove Quarry has now been identified as 
a potential site for housing in the community

The Thursday announcement from the City an agreement to sell land for housing  (for an undisclosed price) to a Langford developer Keystone Corp., though there was little else to share on the topic such as what form and style of housing may be planned and how much of a footprint it will take from the Quarry site.

An area of the city, that was not previously noted in any of the vision planning as being on the front burner for housing development.

City Manager Rob Buchan, who from his past work in the Greater Victoria area previous to joining the city,  is no doubt familiar with the work of the developer from Langford.  

So he may be able to fill in some of the details as the process moves forward.

While those returning City Council members for the new term may be able to share some thoughts on the housing plans, especially the location of choice for the initiative.

An area of the city currently zoned as light industrial which seems somewhat out of sync with their vision planning work of the last four years where the focus was supposedly to create more housing in the central core of the city to add to those vast areas of the downtown where development has stalled over the last decade and beyond.

The first of those proposed changes to the downtown core was to be the Gateway area at the corner of McBride Street and Third Avenues East and West, though so far not much has come from the July 2021 introduction.

The push to see some progress on the need for housing in Prince Rupert found the City  earlier this year releasing vast tracts of land for potential housing development. 

Land and lots of it ... City of Prince Rupert outlines plans to make property lots available through Legacy Inc.

Earlier this year the City of Prince Rupert announced plans
to sell land in three areas of the community, including the
Alpine Avenue area on the west side of the city.

None of those areas it would appear appealed to the Langford developers, and with no announcements towards any land sales for those areas yet, nor it seems have they appealed to anyone else.

Over the course of the year, the City has also announced other civic owned smaller properties and parcels as up for sale (such as this announcement from February), though we  haven't heard of the success of those offerings to date.

So beyond the need for much more in the way of details towards the Seal Cove plans, perhaps an update from the new administration on where the new City Council will be focusing its attention towards housing might be a helpful guide for residents in the near future.  

So that we can  hear more on what to expect from Mayor Herb Pond ant Council is as we move through the new term.

With tonight's session mostly one of ceremony and inauguration of the new collective, those answers for residents will have to wait to a bit later into the start of the term it would seem.

More notes on Housing can be reviewed from our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.