Comments on state of Downtown core area brings update, with Mayor Pond noting that City staff is "Active on Downtown appearance files"

The volume of boarded up storefronts and general appearance of the downtown
area made for some commentary at the Monday Council Session

The visual appearance of the downtown core is once again on the radar of Prince Rupert City Council, that after Councillor Barry Cunningham offered up some observations of the streetscape along the city's main shopping thoroughfare of Third Avenue West.

We noted of some of the growing number of boarded up storefronts on Monday, and we don't know if the Councillor is a reader of the blog or not; but he did seem to echo some of our observations from a recent tour of the Avenue.

In his comments for Council on Monday, Mr. Cunningham made note of the approaching tourism season and how the vista will be for the viewing of a wider number of visitors.

"Tourism is fast approaching, Cruise ships, people coming into town. You go up Third Avenue we still have debris from fires, buildings that are derelict and plywood on buildings that I don't think should have plywood on it.

And plywood on a window, when we just had a variance a while back with CBC wanting to cover a certain amount of their window and it exceeded the bylaw, to cover more that it should be. 

And they had to get a variance to pay for it, now you go up and down Third Avenue and you see these buildings with plywood on them, they're covering the whole damn window.

And for what reason in some of them I have no idea. 

Other than possibly there's a medicinal marijuana grow op in there, but that's irrelevant, it's still against our bylaw and there should be something done with it.

And I just think that our bylaw should be looking at that"

The Councillor also had some concerns over potential marijuana grow operations in the eastern end of First Avenue West. 

"Also in the Property Maintenance Bylaw there's a section in there about obnoxious smells and if you've been down towards  the Credit Union,  right now that whole area reeks.

And I have had three or four people who have business down there complaining about it.  

Now, even a medicinal marijuana grow op, they can filter it, they don't have to put the air out there so the whole town smells like we're all standing on street corners.

So you know, I really think that we should be looking at those two things from a bylaw point of view."

In reply to Mr. Cunningham's concerns, Mayor Herb Pond offered up a few observations.

"Fair comment, I can tell you on the buildings that you described. That staff is active on those files. There's probably issues that prevent us from speaking about it more fully, just in terms of legal issues.

The Mayor then called on Rosa Miller, the Corporate Administrator to expand on the work of staff towards the topic.

"You are correct, we are working on it, there are some matters are with legal so we have to refrain from comment on that. With respect to the Property Maintenance and Noxious odours I can assure that Bylaw have received those complaints and are working on the situation". -- Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller

While it was noted that staff continues to work on the issue, there was no indication if they had compiled any kind of report that may provide some guidance as to why so many business storefronts have taken on their plywood appearance over the last few years.  

As well as if there are any other issues in the downtown area may need to be addressed.

You can review the discussion from the City's Video archive starting at the 23 minute mark.

More notes related to the Monday Council Session can be reviewed here.

Some of the past discussion on the topics of downtown appearance and grow ops in the city core can be found through our Council Discussion archives.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.