Prince George City Council has denied a developer’s request to modify a Section 219 covenant to build seniors housing instead of student housing.
The City entered into the covenant with the Hub Collection in June of 2021, with the expectation the developer would build a 256-unit apartment building intended for students located at 4500 Ospika Boulevard.
Since then, the applicant has applied to modify the covenant to facilitate development of a 118-unit apartment building intended for seniors.
The modification to the covenant was brought to City Council at tonight’s (Monday) meeting.
“We sold the lands for a specific purpose, we made a deal with the developer that this was what was going to built there, and that’s what I expect to be built there,” said Councillor Kyle Sampson.
Sampson also motioned to have the request denied.
Council was in agreement with Sampson.
“We are open for business in this city, we do want to work with developers, we’ve spent a lot of time considering what the housing needs are in this community,” added Councillor Garth Frizzell.
“The Housing Needs Assessment that we’ve looked at shows clearly what we need, we’ve got an agreement and I want to stick with the original agreement, and I’m not interested in changing this covenant.”
“We are desperate for student housing in our community, the Housing Needs assessment was very clear,” said Councillor Cori Ramsay.
“We need 5,000 rental units of housing by 2030. 5,000, 30 per cent of that needs to be zero or one-bedroom, and this fills that quota slightly.”
Councillor Susan Scott added the proposed change wouldn’t cover the needs for seniors in the community.
“I don’t believe, even if we went ahead with seniors housing in this location that we would address the critical gap in our city, which is Alzheimer’s and dementia care,” Scott said.
“That’s not even an element in this suggestion.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of Sampson’s motion to deny the request.
Other items on the agenda included a gift agreement for a multisport court, and council voted to show support for post-secondary veterinary programs in the north.
The full agenda can be found here.