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THE
PRINCE
GEORGE
CITIZEN
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 21 , 2011 "IT'S WHAT MATTERS
UL
YOU
Newsstand $1.50 | Home Delivered 69c/day
Talk of the park
Rec project receives city backing
OUTDOORS 17
HST extension may be in works
NEWS 5
HIV
vaccine cleared for testing
CANADA 8
REIGN IN SPAIN
Spanish lawmakers vote to appoint new PM
MONEY 27
Lemon
pudding
earns
woman
$250,000
DINING 23
CORRECTION
The headline for a story appearing on page 4 of Tuesday’s issue of the paper should have read “City set to face lawsuit over addictions centre decision.” The Citizen apologizes for the error.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
XMAS IN MINIATURE — Ranjit Gill looks over the latest display at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum. The Christmas Village display created by Lisa Smith and Claudia Nesbit took 16 days to complete. It will be on display at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum during their Celebration of Lights until Dec. 24.
EDUCATION
College tech upgrade unveiled
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
With the students out of class for the holiday season, dignitaries converged Tuesday on the College of New Caledonia (CNC) to get a close up look at the new technical education centre they hope will carry the school well into the future.
Operating since September, the 7,382-square-metre (75,067-square-foot) building is nearly 40 per cent larger than the old 49-year-old structure across the way - big enough to hold eight trade shops, 11 classrooms and four computer lab, space for 24 instructors and a communal student lounge.
But that’s not all.
Walk into the building, and you’ll be greeted by a hallway covered in panels of rotary-cut Douglas fir rising about halfway up the wall where they give way to sheets of sandblasted steel. And along the roof are skylights specially designed to reflect light in from the southern exposure.
The shops and classrooms also feature plenty of natural lighting and the faculty offices hold up a “green roof” where hearty vegetation grows as an environmentally-responsible alternative to shingles.
An onsite storm water management system, complete with ponds outside, means water can be recaptured and used to maintain the plants and grass around the building. Solar panels are also in place to
heat water and there are dual flush toilets.
Construction cost $19.7 million but due to all the energy saving measures in place, it will cost 50-per-cent less to heat and cool than a building of the same size without the features. And it’s meant to last 50 years.
On that note, almost all the shops hold “cable racking” as part of a plan give the centre the flexibility to bring in new programs.
CNC is seeking approval to introduce an engineering technology program and is working with Can-for Pulp to add second class power engineering program to complement the third and fourth class programs.
— see SHOPS, page 2
Resident challenges city rezoning for addiction centre
Arthur WILLIAMS Citizen staff awilliams@pgcitizen.ca
Leslie Road resident Janice Sevin launched a legal challenge Monday of the City of Prince George’s decision to rezone the former Haldi Road elementary school to allow a women’s addiction treatment centre.
On Dec. 12 city council approved the fourth and final reading of a rezoning for 5877 Leslie Rd. The controversial decision allows the creation of the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women -a 30-bed women’s addiction treatment centre.
“In my time in this area, for more than 20 years, this lifestyle ... emphasizes rural living by families or homeowners and the resulting privacy and quietude,” Sevin wrote in an affidavit which forms part of her petition to the B.C. Supreme
Court.
“I trusted that the official policies of the City of Prince George, as reflected in the Official Community Plan, would be respected, and believe that such trust has been broken, and the official policies affecting the Haldi Road rural residential area have been ignored or violated.”
Sevin could not be reached for comment as of press time.
However, in her affidavit Sevin said she filed the petition after consulting with other area residents.
City manager Derek Bates said the city has received a copy of the petition, but is making no further comment on the issue while it is before the courts. The city has 21 days to file a response with the
B.C. Supreme Court.
Marshall Smith, project manager for the proposed Northern Sup-
portive Recover Centre for Women, declined to comment.
Sevin’s lawyer, Roy Stewart, did not return calls as of press time.
Basis for challenge
Sevin’s petition requests the court quash the bylaw rezoning the former school from “rural residential” to a special “therapeutic community” designation. The petition cites three reasons the bylaw should be declared invalid: it is inconsistent with Prince George’s Official Community Plan, and therefore illegal; it regulates the users, not the use of, the facility, which the petition claims is impermissible; and it attempts to indirectly amend the Official Community Plan without following the required procedures laid out in the Local Government Act.
— see CASE, page 3
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