S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 10
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
City delays Bench rezoning By CECILE FAVRON TERRACE CITY council has postponed a rezoning decision for a piece of property on the bench after hearing protests by nearby residents. A Vancouver developer who bought the 5.28 acres on the top of Lanfear Hill last year wants to build up to 69 duplex or townhouse units but residents say that kind of jump in density has them worried about traffic problems and about stability of the hill. Jim Checkley who lives adjacent to the property and collected signatures to present
to council during a rezoning hearing held last night, said “there is more than just a casual interest in what is going to happen up here.” He said that residents want to see the city come up with a traffic plan for the Thomas/ McConnell intersection at the top of Lanfear and for the adjacent Cooper/Thomas intersection before allowing big developments on the bench. “It is a tremendous bottleneck and an unbelievable hazard,” Checkley said, explaining that the hill cannot handle more traffic. He also cited concern that the project
could lead to more erosion of the hill. Other residents expressed similar concerns and also were unhappy that the developer had chosen not to attend the hearing nor make any plans for the development public. Marilyn Fell told council that residents on the bench had chosen to live in that location so that they wouldn’t have the high-density atmosphere of downtown and she felt that council was not listening to those concerns. “The public hearings are called, but the public is not being heard, the developers are being heard,” she contended. The city has taken the position that this
type of development is not widely available on the residential bench area of the city and it would help Terrace meet housing needs. The land was rezoned from its AR2 agricultural designation to R1 residential last year in accordance with bylaw update measures. On the table is an application by the developer to have the property rezoned once again to an R3 low-density, multi-family residential designation. The decision on this application was tabled until council next meets July 13.
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Lower gas rates possible THE PROSPECT of a small liquefied natural gas (LNG) project being built near Kitimat offers a major benefit for the northwest. Should Douglas Channel LNG go ahead, it will take up all of the current surplus capacity in the Pacific Northern Gas pipeline which stretches west from Prince George. Because the pipeline is now under utilized, current Pacific Northern Gas residential and other customers now pay the highest gas transportation costs in the province to finance the utility’s pipeline. But should Douglas Channel LNG proceed, its payments to Pacific Northern Gas to transport gas to its facility will lower those rates for all users. Dan Woznow, a vice president for Calgary energy company AltaGas, which is both a partner in the Douglas Channel project and the owner of Pacific Northern Gas, says it’s too early to put an exact dollar figure to those savings. “But something in the order of 25 per cent in [delivery] rates is to be expected,” he said of the anticipated reduction. Northwestern residential gas users now pay a delivery rate of $11.867 a gigajoule compared to a lower mainland Fortis utility customer who pays $3.547 a gigajoule and a Pacific Northern Gas customer in Fort St. John who pays $3.471 a gigajoule.
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CECILE FAVRON PHOTO
■■ Class of 2015 CALEDONIA SECONDARY School graduates Cassidy Kitchen, Reanna Peden, Khali Pelletier, Tristan Walker, Preet Bath, Brooklyn Fekete and Rosalyn Fassnacht gathered in the warm sunshine out of the school gym June 26 for a group photo during a reception prior to official ceremonies. For more on grad accomplishments, please see Pages A4 and A5.
For more on the project, see Page A15
Making moves
Big smoke
Feel the hunger
Thornhill fire chief Wes Patterson is heading to Port Alberni \COMMUNITY A9
Last weekend’s bunkhouse blaze called ‘mysterious’ \NEWS A3
Terrace’s Shogun Dojo athletes have unstoppable drive \SPORTS A21