The City of Prince George will be considering what could be done to revitalize the riverfronts in the City.
This came from a notice of motion presented by Councillors Trudy Klassen and Tim Bennett at last night’s (Wednesday) City Council meeting.
“My intent here in working with Councillor Bennett on this one is that we develop a long-term plan that begins to realize and develop the steps that we require to redevelop our riverfronts,” Klassen said.
“Every city does this, every city you go to you they have these issues come up, you’ve got industry builds on the river, and then slowly over time, as the City grows, riverfronts become more beautiful and more useful for recreation.”
Councillor Brian Skakun said while he thinks it’s a good idea, but the amount of work it would generate would be massive.
“The consultation would be absolutely massive, I don’t think even think we’d be in a position after a referral motion, if it does go to administration, to come back and say how we’d spend it,” he said.
“I think we need to refer to administration to come back with at least a high level, this is what it’s going to look like.”
Councillor Cori Ramsay agreed, saying she would support a referral motion.
Councillor Kyle Sampson said while he agreed with the intent, he disagreed with some of the mechanisms for moving forward.
“My preference would be that we refer to staff something a bit more broad that they can come back to Council with a bit more appropriate that Council could take with the intent of revitalizing our riverfront,” he said.
“This is very prescriptive, and I’m concerned about that, I don’t want staff’s report on how we carry this out exactly, I want this to maybe be considered in framing that, but I think it needs to be a little bit more broad at this point.”
Sampson added work has been and is being done on some of the riverside trails, but more could and should be done.
Councillor Susan Scott said the flood-plain needs to be considered.
“I’m really concerned about what the volume of what this represents in terms of staff work, so I’m not going to support this at this time,” she said.
Mayor Simon Yu said he always advocates for long-term planning, and the riverfront is no different.
Council ultimately voted to refer the motion back to administration for review and a report back at a later meeting.
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