Coming Up: May 31
Council meets on Monday. The agenda includes:
Dining with Dignity Campaign
Stone Ridge Rezoning
South Peace Regional Archives
Following is more information and my take on agenda items.
As always, any mistakes or opinions belong to me and me alone, not to Council or City staff.
While I express my current views below, I work hard to go into meetings ready to listen and with an open mind. I learn new information and participate in debate. This always informs, and sometimes changes, how I vote on issues.
If you would like to watch the meeting or read any of its supporting material for yourself, you can do so by clicking here. The City will post the highlights of Council’s decisions here.
DINING WITH DIGNITY CAMPAIGN
The Chamber of Commerce and Swan City Rotary Club are partnering with each other to raise funds for a Dining with Dignity Program. The idea is to raise money to purchase gift cards for local residents. These gift cards will be put into Food Bank hampers for families to use. The idea is to help families as well as restaurants that have been hit hard by the pandemic.
There is a request for Council to approved a $5000 contribution from the City. This would come from a pool of Economic Recovery money set aside by Council to help local businesses recover from COVID restrictions.
I’m likely to support this initiative.
STONE RIDGE REZONING
Stone Ridge is the development south of 68 Ave, directly across from the Eastlink Centre and Community Knowledge Campus. Council is considering a proposal to rezone a piece of land within it. This land is currently designated as Medium Density Residential. The proposal is to rezone it to General Commercial to accommodate professional and medical offices.
Picture taken from this staff report.
The City has many pieces of vacant land zoned for multi-family developments. They have gone undeveloped due to lack of market demand. For the most part, I’ve been open to re-zoning them when someone wishes to build on the land.
However, in my mind, this land is different. It is right across from the Community Knowledge Campus, which represents hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer investments to build community recreational and educational facilities. I want people to be able to live near it. And I want people of various income levels to live near it, which means multi-family land is key.
I understand that there might not be a lot of demand for multi-family development in our community right now. But in the future, there could be. And if that happens, having adequate land for it near the Community Knowledge Campus is important.
I’ve got a number of questions to ask about this proposal, including how it changes population projections for the area. So I don’t know whether or not I will support it. But going into debate: I do have reservations about it.
ARCHIVES
The South Peace Regional Archives are moving into the basement of Centre 2000. To help convert the space, they are asking for $150,000 in capital costs. They are also requesting $105,000 in 2022 and $130,000 in 2023 for operational funding.
I’m certainly glad to see the Archives moving towards having a permanent home that has adequate space which is safe for their collection. So I’m more than willing to consider their funding request. However, no decisions will be made on Monday: it is just an informational presentation.
If you wish to see their plans and funding request, you can access it here.
That’s what is on our agenda for Monday. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You can comment below. Or, you can contact me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166. I'm happy to talk online or over the phone. I'm also always willing to setup a time to meet for coffee.
We also always have great conversation in the GP Round Table group on Facebook.
After Council meeting, you will be able to find highlights posted by the City here.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan