Report card time He was a fighter how it rode out the ups and _ downs of 2000\NEWS AS We grade Terrace's city council on change\COMMUNITY B1 aa The city mourns the loss of one of its longtime activists for social Bring it on! Native\SPORTS B5 VOL. 43 NO. 41 _ WEDNESDAY January.17, 2001 ~ -www-beclassified.com’ $4.00 pius 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outsive of the Tarrace area) THERE’S RENEWED optimism a long-sought plan for a different kind of seniors housing here will actually hap- pen. so , Officials of the Terrace and Area Health Council have been meeting with provincial housing officials to build 25 units of rental housing on‘ Jand immediately ad- jacent to Terraceview Lodge. ern This type of accomm housing in that while people can live ‘independently, they can also have access toa certain level. of services, In this situation, services such as meals will be avail- able at Terraceview Lodge. “We want to have all the paperwork: done by the be-” ginning -of the [new] fiscal year so we can begin con-: struction,” week, oe 7 Since the next fiscal year begins April 1, a construction start is not out of the question, ey - Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht declined to be specific about construction plans but did say he expects good news very soon, | The first plans for' a supportive housing project were drafted just before the defeat of the Social Credit gov- health council chair Bob Kelly said: last spring ousin odation is called supportive ‘when B,C, Housing, the ‘ment which provides housing assistance, said it would ernment in 1991, Back then Dave Parker, the Social Credit MLA for Skeena, was able to have the land beside Terraceview Lodge turned over by the provincial government to the Terrace Health Care Society, the predecessor of the health council. . Several attempts to attract governinent support * through the Dr, REM. Lee Hospital Foundation failed, _ The closest the project got until now was 1999-2000 arm of the provincial govern- Subsidize eight of a planned 22 units and use them for affordable, law cost housing, ; Over 25 years, that amount would have worked out to $746,000. It would also chip in with $58,000 a year to help pay the mortgage costs and operating costs of the units over the same period of time. ' The other units would be sold to their occupants, Backers of the Terrace Mountain Manor project, as it was then called, did manage to sell some of the remain- ing units but not enough to satisfy the Northern Savings Credit Union to have it front enough money to begin The Terrace Spirit Riders play hard and tough en route to the All- oS . ————$————===_"F . ———— ————— - —_ construction, The project collapsed at that point but did begin a re- vival when the health council got involved. It already operates Terraceview Lodge so having it also be responsible for supportive housing made sense, said Kelly. This time, all of the units will be rental ones, he added, , “The number of units has been increased to 25 and there'll be a connecting walkway to Terraceview Lodge,” Kelly said. Four of the units will have two bedrooms and all will be wheelchair accessible, ; Kelly said he and other health council members were happy with the involvement and commitment by B.C, Housing. “B.C. Housing is very supportive” said Kelly, “We're quite pleased.” — While B.C. Housing’s exact level of financial com- mitment is not yet known, it has provided a $50,000 pra- ject development budget. Architect Dan Condon, who worked on plans for past projects, is the architect on this one, g effort revived Bob Kelly ‘ ey Bh By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN A CITY-BROKERED compromise may allow a develo- ‘Pér.to. build more homes at the west end of Terrace Mountain trail ii’exchange ‘for “préservation of more teen space there, a , About 40 neighbours turned out to a meeting Thursday night on Rosseo Ventures’ options for developing the hillside above and east of existing houses on Yeo St. The R1 zone there now gives the company. the ability fo turn the land into about 10 lots for tegular houses, But city planner David Trawin said that ‘option would eliminate about half the green Space near the trail head. “Our whole intént is to retain as much of the green Space as possible,” said Trawin. ; oe , He’s brokered a deal that would instead allow Rossco to build up to 20 townhouse or small condominium units. The units would.be located within clusters covering a smaller portion of the Rossco property, “The benefit of that is that it retains a lot more of the natural area,” Trawin. said. “The impact on the area drops from 50 per cent to 20 per cent.” Residents opposed another option that would have let Rossco build 25 units, while company owner Bud Smith rejected suggestions just 15 units be built, » He said any less than 20-would make the develop- ment uneconomical. Each building will have a max- -imum of four living units. , ', The neighbours fear that should the Proposed units not sell to permanent owners that they will be tented out. THE CITY is demanding big greenbelt buffers around the top of the airport plateau to keep future industrial deve- lopment there from causing large scars visible for miles, ‘The provincial government, through its B.C. Assets ‘and Land Corporation, is preparing to sell off chunks of _ the airport land to industrial buyers. ‘Bot city and lands corporation officials are at odds over how much green space should be left. The lands corporation Says its policy is to give up no ‘More than five per cent of a property for park land or . gleen space. . co City planner David. Trawin says he wants Victoria to a Loves the mountain FIVE YEARS ago Hector Hayashi, a Rotary exchange student at the time, arrived from Mexico for a year's Stay and embraced snowboarding. He returned Jan, 1 this year for a three-week-stay and quickly made his way back to Shames Mountain. For more on Hector and his visit, see Page B1. BETTY BARTON PHOTO ; give up 15 to 20 per cent of the land proposed for sale southeast of the alrport. ; He’s insisting on a 60-metre buffer strip along the highway to hide future industry there from motorists. And he wants the entire southeastern Slope of the air- port plateau left undeveloped and unlogged because it would be visible from far away. City ponders ha “You can see some of those side slopes from Jack- | Bench residents a bit leery | Over plans for new housing “We're concerned they are going to become rental units,” said June Steele, a Yeo St. resident. . —_ ~, However, Smith’s intent is that the buildings willbe. owner-occupied, said. Trawin, who added the units will be designed and priced for mid-to-high-income earners, The proposal will involve: the: rezoning of the Rassco Property to a unique zone that will be specially created. A strata corporation will be formed absolving the city of responsibility for maintenance, snow removal, roads and sewers, But residents are leery that should the strata not have enough money to maintain the property that residents down Yeo St. may bear the brunt of any problems. The major issue for residents was drainage. Some re- sidents already have problems with winter run-off for- ming ponds in their yards. They worry additional run-off from the 20 proposed units could ageravate the problem. Residents want the city to reserve some of the de- signated green space and make it park land, and relo- cate two of the planned’ Rossco lots. They aiso want Munthe Ave. reclassified as a collec- tor road, rather than a local road. That would make the city take on 100 per cent of any future rebuilding costs, Residents also want the natural area designated - for the property restored. Much of it is ‘cleared and trees would need to be pianted. a a Another meeting is expected before Rossco Ventures applies for rezoning. A public hearing will also be re- quired when that comes {o council. Airport greenbelt area wanted pine Flats, Thornhill, even coming up from Lakelse Lake,” Trawin said, He also wants a 200-metre buffer strip south of the airport between the highway and Beam Station Road, and a 15-metre leave strip around the. top edges of the- escarpment. Trawin said that’s intended to reduce how much de- velopments there can be seen or heard from Lakelse Lake. The city demands affect the economies of the sale and future use of the land, said lands corporation project manager Jim Senka. “The city wants half of it for green space,” he said. “We'd like to do that if we could, but that could render the whole project undoable.” “They only want to let us develop what's flat,” he added. Trawin expects to meet this week with officials from the corporation and the forests ministry in an effort to re- solve the issue. ving its own police By JEFF NAGEL THE CITY is upping the ante in its fi- nancial dispute with the RCMP by in- dicating it just might set up its own police force, - Talk of .that possibility came last week as city council approved spend- ing more than $2,500 to hire a consul: tant to hold a workshop for the city on policing options. And.it-comes on the eve of an im- ' portant ‘Jan.19 meeting where the city il pul “its" financial questions to. lars ees wil p 1 dancial gq ee “i OT hig ig going to be'a little bit exe i RCMP accounting officials: ; a City council alleges it is paying More than its required share of support staff costs and that it shouldn't have to pay for as many RCMP officers either. The city has scrutinized RCMP billing procedures more closely since staff ‘ projected the city’s share of RCMP costs will leap $310,000 to $2.7 mil- lion next year. Policing costs ate now the most ex. pensive. department consuming. the and local, taxpayer's dol city’s budget: TT ae - pensive but I think it’s well worth while,” councillor Val George said of the workshop. “It's money well spent,” added councillor Rich McDaniel. “We may not be able to make any change in the near future, but I think we will have to look seriously at it down the road,” George said. “This is mot the sort of . thing you're going to do overnight.” __.. Terrace’s: population. is approaching - the level at which provincial and fed. "eral subsidies ate. reduced further and: “local -taxpayers"take ‘an ‘the’ vast mae jority of policing costs, If the population within city limits — now estimated to be close to 14,000— exceeds 15,000, the city’s share of RCMP costs will rise from the current 70 per cent to 90 per cent. When that happens, the city’s costs will leap by another $800,000 or more. “Certainly at that time 1 think and the rest of council think we have to look at alternative ways of doing things,” George sald, - Councillor Olga Power noted the - population probably won't cross that threshold in the 2001 census, but more likely in the next one, five years later, It could also happen sooner if Thornhill were to merge with Terrace, “as that would instantly put the city’s Population well over 20,000. George said many B.C. towns are alarmed abou! the recent increase in policing costs, “RCMP services are becoming really expensive ‘and we're really con- cemed about:these unilateral decisions they’ve been making,” Geotge said,