Prince George residents have voiced their desire for older properties to earn “heritage” recognition at multiple Talktober meetings this month.
City Planner Hillary Morgan says this is a project in the works, and there are four properties on the register right now: the South Fort George School House, Sixth Avenue Liquor Store, Old Post Office, and The Nechako Crossing. She’s hoping to add more shortly.
“Once the public and property owners understand and are familiar with the what the register is, hopefully, we can add to it every year and eventually have a pretty good listing of heritage properties in our community.”
The Register is the official list of Prince George structured and sites given heritage value. These properties earn a heritage title through Council’s blessing, as recommended by the Heritage Commission.
Heritage properties owners can receive a few perks, like possible building standard exemptions, but Morgan says the recognition is about more about civic pride.
“There’s a big benefit to the public in that it makes the information more available to everybody so when people come in to find out about their property we have documentation and somebody has done some research and we can share that information with the public.”
Morgan adds the city’s Heritage Commission meets once a month and invited anyone interested in coming out. She hopes to have a few proposals for City Council in the next few months.