Houston Today
NEWS
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
www.houston-today.com
3
CALDERWOOD REALTY
District land use vision to celebrate natural beauty
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By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
The District of Houston is developing a vision for the community to guide future development. Colourful maps and information covered the walls at a District of Houston Open House in November, where people discussed the proposed Land Use Plan. Hired in March, consultant Fraser Blyth from Selkirk Planning & Design gave a presentation about the plan. It was developed based on the Official Community Plan (OCP), other relevant plans, population projections for this area, and public input from an open house last June. The purpose of the plan is to form a map of the community vision and use that to guide future development, Blyth said. The draft plan includes three key initiatives. First is placemaking. Part of that is not expanding infrastructure beyond the need.
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Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Consultant Fraser Blyth from Selkirk Planning & Design explains the Houston Land Use plan to Houston residents at a November District Open House. “Houston has water and sewer capacity for 6,000 people, so you’re sitting at half your capacity right now,” Blyth said. Place-making also includes promoting infill on vacant land downtown. A second initiative in the draft plan is to celebrate natural assets and market green energy. “The natural beauty isn’t celebrated as much as I think it should be,” Blyth said. “You’ve got great access to the river and beautiful landscapes, so part of the Land
Use Plan is to build in some strategies to help celebrate those natural assets.” Houston has a really unique opportunity to create an ecovillage, something “different from other communities in B.C.” Blyth said. It fits well with the new brand, “Houston, naturally amazing,” he added. There are also lots of ideas in the OCP about “being a local leader in green energy,” so the plan includes policies and ideas to do that. A third initiative
is to use existing infrastructure as much as possible and incorporate future development into what is already here. Blyth says the land use plan is a big vision, which includes redevelopment ideas for downtown, the duckpond, Buck Creek, and more. “The idea is to dream big and don’t be scared by the dreams, just realize it’s not going to happen all at once and you need to implement it slowly and annually,” he said. After the land use plan is finalized, it will
Hatch Ltd. completes study on Kitimat oil refinery OIL from Page 1 Cullen said Black has struggled in getting Canadian backers, from the supply side to the financial side, and it would never get built if he can’t get producers on board. That said the question of valueadded remains important, he said, and the public could be more inclined to pipelines if benefit came back to the people. Black admits that finances are where he has to put his efforts at the moment. “I really think I have to tie down more money here,” he said.
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“I’ve got to focus on who’s going to provide the money.” He said with this study now done, he really needs the government “to tell me whether they’re coming to the party or not.” With an estimated 3,000 person workforce for the refinery, Black said Hatch’s report puts directly-employed jobs at up to 1,500, while another 1,500 would work at the refinery on a contract basis. He cites potential for up to 3,000 other jobs with possible petrochemical plants that could open up in
conjunction with the refinery. He points out that large volumes of sulphur extracted during the refining process could be used to supply a fertilizer plant, for instance. He said he didn’t know exactly what the particular emissions estimates would be but that carbon dioxide emissions would be about one-third of a normal heavy oil refinery, and would be about 10 million tonnes per year. Black said it has been awhile since he has spoken with the Haisla or Kitselas about the project, who he specifically
names as governments he’ll have to work out economic benefit deals with, but he said he has felt positive based on early conversations with them. Absent from his December 4 release was talk about how he’d get product to his refinery and he said he hasn’t focused on that question recently, but is still hoping for a pipeline, but has not ruled out rail. “CN wants to do it, that’s for sure,” he said. Black is the Chairman of Black Press, which owns, among others, this newspaper.
lead to changes to the District’s vision for Houston (the Official Community Plan). The public will be invited to give input on the suggested changes at an open house January 21, 2015.
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Please join us for an evening of
Christmas
Praise & Fellowship as we celebrate
at the
Houston Canadian Reformed Church (Avalon subdivision)
7:30 pm on
Sunday, December 21st, 2014 An evening of praise & celebration as we rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation.
Everyone is Welcome Refreshments and fellowship to follow.