Report card time He was a fighter Bring it onl We grade Terrace's city council on The city mourns the loss of one of how it rode out the ups and The Terrace Soirit Riders play hard its Iongtime activists for social downs of 2000\NEWS A5 and tough en route to the All- I change\COMMUNITYB1 Native\SPORTS B5 1 VOL. 13 NO. 41 WEDNESDAY m January 17, 2001 L- ,,,,v,,..~.,'~j~ t.~ilf~. K.t.m~ $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8t GST outside of the Terracearea) TAN DARD ,| u Seniors housing effort revived THERE'S RENEWED optimism a long-sought plan for a crnment in 1991. construction. different kind of seniors housing here will actually hap- pen. Back then Dave Parker, the Social Credit MLA for The project collapsed at that point but did begin a re- Officials of the Terrace and Area Health Council Skeena, was able to have the land beside Terraceview Lodge tui'ned over by the provincial government to the vival when the health council got involved. have been meeting with provincial housing officials .to It already operates Terraceview Lodge so having it build 25 units of rental housing on land immediately ad- Terrace Health Care Society, the predecessor of the health council. also be responsible for supportive housing made sense, jacent to Terraceview Lodge. said Kelly. This type of accommodation is called supportive Several attempts to attract government support through the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation failed. This time, all of the units will be rental ones, he housing in that while people can. live independently, added. they can also have access to a certain level of services. The closest the project got until now was 1999-2000 I~ this situation, services such as meals will" be avail- ~when B.C. Housing, the arm of the provincial govern- "The number of units has been increased to 25 and able at Terraceview Lodge. ment which provides housing assistance, said it would there'll be a connecting walkway to Terraceview Lodge," Kelly said. "We want to have all the paperwork• done by the be- subsidize eight of a planned 22 units and use them for affordable, low cost housing. Four of the units will have two bedrooms and all will ginning .of the [new] fiscal year so we can begin con- be wheelchair accessible. struction," health council chair Bob Kelly said last Over 25 years, that amount would have worked out to week. $746,00O. Kelly said he and other health council members were It would also chip in with $58,000 a year to help pay happy with the involvement and commitment by B.C. Since the ne.xt fiscal year begins April 1, a spring Housing. construction start is not out of the question. the mortgage costs and operating costs of the units over the same period of time. "B.C. Housing is very supportive" said Kelly. "We're Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Oiesbrecht declined to be quite pleased." specific about construction plans but did say he expects The other units would be sold to their occupants. good news very soon. Backers of the Terrace Mountain Manor project, as it While B.C. Housing's exact level of financial com- was then called, did manage to sell some of the remain. mitment is not yet known, it has provided a $50,000 pro- The first plans for a Supportive housing project were ject development budget. drafted just before the defeat of the Social Credit guy- ing units but not enough to satisfy the Northern Savings Credit Union to have it front enough money to begin .Architect Dan Condon, who worked on plans for past projects, is the architect on this one. Bob Kelly Bench residents a bit leery over plans fc" new housing By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN "We're concerned they are going to become rental A CITY-BROKERED compromise may allow a develo- per to build ~ore homes at the wesL end of Terrace units," said June Steele, a Yeo St. resident. Mountain trail ttr"eXchange fbi.-iff~s~/~fi~-,o,~,-~fr~: .... .However, Smith.'s intent is that the buildings will be green space there. owner-occupled, Said Trawin, who added the Units will About 40 neighbours turned out to a meeting Thursday be designed and priced for mid-to-high-income earners. night on Rossco Ventures' options for developing the The proposal will involve, the rezoning of the Rossco hillside above and east of existing houses on Yeo St. property to a unique zone that will be specially created. The R1 zone there now gives the company the ability A strata corporation will be formed absolving the city of responsibility for maintenance, snow removal, roads to turn the land into about 10 lots for regular houses. and sewers. But city planner David Trawin said that option would eliminate about half the green space near the trail head. But residents are leery that should the strata not have "Our whole intent is to retain as much of the green enough money to maintain the property that residents space as possible," said Trawin. down Yeo St. may bear the brunt of any problems. He's brokered a deal that would instead allow Rossco The major issue for residents was drainage. Some re- to build up to 20 townhouse or small condominium units. sidents already have problems with winter run-off for- The units would be located within clusters covering a ming ponds in their yards. They worry additional run-off smaller portion of the Rossco property. from the 20 proposed units could aggravate the problem. "The benefit of that is that it retains a lot more of the Residents want the city to reserve some of the de- signated green space and make it park land, and relo- natural area," Trawin said. "The impact on the area drops from 50 per cent to 20 per cent." cate two of the planned" Rossco lots. Residents opposed another:option that would have let They also want Munthe Ave. reclassified as a collec- Rossco build 25 units, while company owner Bud Smith tor road, rather than a local road. That would make the rejected suggestions just 15 units be built. city take on 100 per cent of any future rebuilding costs. • He said any less than 20 would make the develop- Residents also want the natural area designated for ment uneconomical. Each building will have a raax- the property restored. Much of it is cleared and trees unum of four living units. would need to be planted. The neighbours fear that should the proposed units not Another meeting is expected before Rossc0 Ventures sell to permanent owners that they will be rented out. applies for rezoning. A public hearing will also be re- quired when that comes to council. Airport greenbelt area wanted THE CITY is demanding big greenbelt buffers around the pine Flats, Thornhill, even coming up from Lakelse top of the airport plateau to keep future industrial deve- Lake," Trawin said. lopment there from causing large Scars visible for miles. He also wants a 200-metre buffer strip south of the, The provincial government, through its B.C. Assets airport between the highway and Beam Station Road, and Land Corporation, is preparing to sell off chunks of the airport lafid to industrial buyers. and a 15-metre leave strip around the top edges of the escarpment. But city and lands corporation officials are at odds aver how much green space should be left. Trawin said that's intended to reduce how much de- velopments there can be seen or heard from Lakelse The lands corporation says its policy is to give up no Lake. 1here than five per cent of a property for park land or ~cen space. The city demands affect the economics of the sale City planner David Trawin says he wants Victoria to and future use of the land, said lands corporation project manager Jim Senka. give up 15 to 20 per cent of the land proposed for sale [] Loves the mountain southeast of the airport. "The city wants half of it for green space," he said. FIVE YEARS ago Hector Hayashi, a Rotary exchange student at the He's insisting on a 60-metre buffer Strip along the "We'd like to do that if we could, but that could render the whole project undoable." time, arrived from Mexico for a year's stay and embraced snowboardlng. highway to hide future industry there from motorists. "They only want to let us develop what's fiat," he He returned Jan. 1 this year for a three-week-stay and quickly made his And he wants the entire southeastern slope of the air- added. way back to Shames Mountain. For more on Hector and his visit, see port plateau left undeveloped and unlogged because it Page B1. BETTY BARTON PHOTO would be visible from far away. Trawin expects to meet this week with officials from the corporation and the forests ministry in an effort to re- "You can see some of those side slopes from Jack- solve the issue. City ponders having its own police By JEFF NAGEL City council alleges it is paying pensive but I think it's well worth jority of policing costs, threshold in the 2001 census, but more I'HE CITY isupping the ante in itsfi- more than its required share of supporttpi while.":," councillorcouncillnr Val George~ ....... said :,4 of^r .................. aancial dispute with the RCMP by in- staff costs and that it shouldn't have to the workshop. If the population within city limits - likely in the next one, five years later.