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VOL. 27 NO. 11
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Huge housing complex planned By JOSH MASSEY A HOUSING mega-complex planned for a section of land bounded by Kenney and Park in the Horseshoe will be the largest such development in Terrace since the 1980s. Details have emerged of Calgary-based Coast to Coast Holdings Inc.'s plans for what could be more than 180 apartment and townhouse units to be built by combining nearly 5.5 acres assembled through two private sales and a land purchase from the city. Most of the land was once the
home of a provincial government highways maintenance yard but the buildings were taken down more than 20 years ago and the land was subdivided and sold off. Now Coast to Coast owns these two parcels as well as another small parcel immediately north of them. The property that the city sold to Coast to Coast is right on the corner of Kenney and Park and is planned to be a 105-unit apartment complex. Beside it is planned another housing complex with at least 7075 units. North of that, toward the
corner of Walsh and Kenney, will be a six-unit townhouse complex, for which a development permit has already been applied for. The city is selling its 2.4 acre parcel for $951,000, far more than the minimum asking price of $408,000 when it sought bids on the property earlier this year. This means more money than first contemplated for a city-sponsored affordable housing fund policy which it is in the middle of crafting. City development services director David Block is describing the proposed development as a
double win for the city's efforts to increase the amount of affordable housing. Not yet fully fleshed out, the city does want to provide grants to nonprofit groups to build their own affordable housing or to purchase lands upon which future affordable housing developments can be built, he said. And the second win for affordable housing, according to Block, will take the form of allowing more units to be built on the land than normally permitted in return for Coast to Coast providing affordable housing of its own at the
location. Affordable, in this case, means 20 per cent below market value on the sale of a condo, for instance, and rental rates of 20 per cent less than for similar other units in the complex, said Block. The criteria for determining who qualifies will be based on statements of income, he added. “In a tough [housing] market it will provide affordability to workers earning less,” said Block of the deal being reached between the city and Coast to Coast.
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Klappan talks in limbo By JOSH MASSEY
ANNA KILLEN PHOTO
■■ #Graduationselfie GRADUATE KAI Davies takes a selfie with his friends, from left to right, Leo Nast, Linden Lechner, Matthew Hart and Matthew Brown, at Caledonia Secondary School’s graduation ceremonies June 26. For more photos of the event and awards and scholarship winners, see page A4.
WHAT PROMISED to be negotiation that would see the Klappan Valley, popularly known as the Sacred Headwaters, protected from mining and other developments, appears to be in limbo as the Tahltan Central Council has threatened to take the provincial government to court over control of these traditional lands. “They haven't listened to us to date, that's why we are preparing to go to court,” said Tahltan Central Council President Annita McPhee last week. Last year the province and the Tahltan agreed to take part in what was called the “Klappan Strategic Initiative” with the latter hoping the area would be saved from plans by Fortune Minerals of Ontario to build a large metallurgical coal mine there. The Tahltan use the Klappan for hunting, education and spiritual practices and have blockaded the area off and on over the years to prevent Fortune from gaining access.
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Church will live on
Check mark
Peaks give props
Christ Lutheran Church members say farewell to their longtime building \COMMUNITY A10
The federal government gives their approval to moly mine at Kitsault \NEWS A24
Terrace Peaks Gymnastic Club wraps up its season with awards ceremony \SPORTS A16