Dear Mayor Brain and council,

We’d like to start off by making it very clear that we recognize we are a city in a housing crisis and as a result, we also recognize the desperate need for affordable housing in our community. We firmly believe that housing should not be a privilege but a basic human right - a necessity that we all need access to to ensure good mental, physical, and emotional health. Every person and family in our city deserves this.

We do have some concerns however, with the proposed location and the degree of densification involved in this development as-is. The area of interest is currently zoned for residential and we firmly feel that a large-scale project such as this one would have a negative effect on the area.

This question must be asked. Why are we considering destroying one of the last remaining forested areas within the city. Hays Creek runs through the site where there are fish and other habitats among the lush forest. We regularly see deer, wolves, and eagles inhabiting this land. How is it acceptable to destroy their homes? Prince Rupert is not a sprawling metropolis, but a small community in the middle of a rainforest. To lose this deeply saddens us all. There is also concern about the additional garbage this could bring to the area. Being a main street with a lot of heavy foot traffic, the sidewalks are already heavily littered with garbage. What does this mean for the area and it’s forests when we add hundreds of new residents overnight?

Another extremely concerning issue is that the proposed site is set on a busy transportation route. The entry to this site sits on a top of a blind hill where there have already been traffic accidents as a result. If we were to densify the area to the degree proposed by the proponent, the increase in traffic to the area, especially with the proposed single point of entry to the site, is an MVA in the making. There are no sidewalks on that side of the street, and the road narrows at the top of the hill, making it dangerous for foot traffic also.

Our neighbourhood feels we need to look at our town as a whole. Why are we destroying the things that should matter to northerners the most. There are boarded-up buildings and many already developed vacant lots like the old trailer park site behind the Lester Centre, yet we are looking to destroy existing forests to build new?

And while it may feel like a quick and easy win to the proponent, we do not believe this location has been well-thought out beyond the immediate future and the housing pressures that come along with that. As it stands now, a lot of stigma is attached to high density BC housing/apartment sites - this stigma serves to draw a line in the sand between various socioeconomic groups and as a result, we continue to see blatant racism/classism run rampant in this city.

From a practical standpoint, surrounding property values fall, affecting those pre-existing in the neighbourhood, and the area becomes less desirable. This can been seen in most of the high-density buildings and their surrounding neighbourhoods in Prince Rupert.

This site is not the sole option for expanding housing in our city. We feel that B.C. housing in conjunction with Lax Kw’alaams should be exploring other options that do not involve this degree of densification in any single area. That smaller affordable housing units be spread throughout the city’s various neighbourhoods to unite us all as a community.

As it stands right now, 11th Ave E is the site that the city has agreed to lease for 60 years for a $1, making it the choice area for the proponent due to cost.

But cost should not be everything.

There are things we hold dear to us that you cannot put a price tag on - things like safety, preserving natural beauty, and building lasting community relationships/integration - the reasons we’ve all chosen to live in this fantastic little community to begin with.

Mayor and council please deny this rezoning request and encourage the proponent to consider alternative locations with smaller density projects that are not to the detriment of any one neighbourhood.

Sincerely,

Concerned Residents of Prince Rupert