Council Meeting Summary - July 25, 2022

Here are a few highlights from the City Council meeting last night. You can read the full agenda and all the staff reports on the City website.

• Studio 2880 – Council approved much needed building maintenance to the 2880 and 2820 15th Avenue buildings. The total cost of the work is $260,350 and will be funded from the Community Works Fund (a federal grant fund). This will ensure the viability of the Community Arts Council to continue to occupy the Studio 2880 buildings. Staff will continue to work with the Community Arts Council to plan for the future of arts spaces in the community through the Civic Core Plan, and maintaining their current location will ensure that current arts programing and services will continue for the residents of our city.
• Building permit summary – January to the end of May $116,050,088. This is $8M higher than this time period last year and $82M higher than in 2020.
• Mega park – Based on community support for the idea of a mega park, Council directed staff to conduct a full lifecycle analysis of the financial implications of the proposed park to facilitate an informed review and consideration of the proposed park project. This report will go back to Council at a later date.
• Tree planting – During the 90s our region lost a lot of trees due to the pine beetle so the City responded in 2000 with 40,000 trees to assist with reforestation. Since then, we have directed our efforts to urban trees and greenspaces. The Parks Division also manages the City of Prince George’s Gifts & Legacies program that provides residents the opportunity to memorialize a loved one by donating to have a tree planted or picnic table or bench installed in a park or green space. Tree donors are able to select their favorite species from a pre-determined list of ornamental trees and work with Park staff on a preferred location for planting. Once planted, the tree becomes a City asset and gets the same care and maintenance as all of our newly planted trees. Each year the Parks Division plants a mixture of larger trees with a priority on replacing existing dead and vandalized street and boulevard trees in the downtown, Gateway and other major arterial roads. Prior to the BC Summer Games the Parks Division focused most new tree plantings along Del Laverdure Way in Carrie Jane Gray Park, and at other City facilities and venues hosting athletic competitions and visitors. The 2022 tree budget is $65,000.
• Safe Streets Bylaw amendment – The Safe Streets Bylaw seeks to abate five nuisance and problematic behavior categories. These behaviors tend to fall below the threshold of criminal charges. The five areas are: obstruction of passageways (sidewalks, trails, etc.), solicitation around business enterprises, open drug use, open air burning, and graffiti. The intent of the bylaw is to manage the conflict of use of space issues that resulted in thousands of calls for service (CFS) over the previous few years. These amendments will allow the City to clean up discarded items commonly disposed of on the sidewalks and elsewhere. In addition to education, enforcement (such as tickets) will be added to the compliance tool box and City staff are working on a process and procedure for the collection of abandoned chattels.