Shopping village opponents building their case

The city’s plans to rezone more land on the BC Hydro site for Royop’s Shopping village is attracting a little bit of opposition.

At the last council meeting, Councillor Joy Thorkelson reiterated her opposition to the concept of a shopping destination on the outskirts of town that could be to the detriment of the established businesses of the downtown area.

Now a local architect has offered up her concerns about the development and the impact that it may have on the city and the viability of the downtown core.

The princerupert.com website has posted an open letter to council from Alora Griffin, a local architect who points to Terrace and Prince George as two northern cities that have allowed growth on the periphery of the city, leading to a decline in their downtown business sections.

She urges council to approach the issue in a phased approach, allowing a partial rezoning of the land to begin with and then examining the impact that it has on the downtown area. She also suggests that by using a two step approach, Royop could be held accountable should they disregard civic regulations or recommendations.

While the points of the opponents are valid ones, the simple fact is that locally Rupertites are spending a good portion of their shopping dollars in Terrace as it is. Any weekend jaunt there would confirm that situation for even the most protectionist of Rupertites. The argument has been made in the past that continually keeping the larger stores out of our market will most likely only reinforce that drain of dollars eastward, and once their spent out of town they aren’t coming back. And for the most part it’s hard to argue with that logic.

While many thought the debate on the shopping village had been settled at the time of the last election, it would seem that it’s going to be in the forefront of discussion for a little bit longer.

Council is scheduled to vote on the rezoning request at their December 11th meeting; it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction the plan gets not only from the mayor and his council but from the general public at large.