Aerial view of the College Park neighbourhood of Grande Prairie (Photo: City of Grande Prairie)

By Abby Zieverink

College Park Area Redevelopment Plan

City council looking to refine College Park Area Redevelopment Plan following concerns

Aug 27, 2021 | 6:28 AM

Grande Prairie City Council is looking to investigate options for allowing three and fourplexes to be built only on a discretionary basis in the College Park neighborhood.

This is following the completion of the public hearing for the College Park Area Redevelopment plan at Council’s meeting on Monday, August 23.

Councillor Dylan Bressey says council’s vision for College Park is to make it a neighbourhood where both renters and homeowners can live. He says council is hoping to also keep the character of the area with redevelopment.

“Council wants to make sure it’s a neighborhood that doesn’t have aging houses and does get redevelopment when it’s appropriate, but at the same time doesn’t lose its character as a really unique and great place to live,” explained Bressey.

“This is a neighborhood that over the years, it’s turned into a largely rented neighbourhood, and we want to make sure that we’re also preserving opportunities in it to own a home, not just to rent.”

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Bressey adds the neighbourhood is also has one of the lowest densities in the city, which they would like to add to in a sustainable way.

“And it has aging infrastructure that eventually needs to be replaced in it, but also, it really is a great place to live and so wanting to make sure we’re creating opportunities to create a little bit more density in that neighborhood, but not in a way that it fundamentally changes the character of it.”

Administration reviewed the College Park area structure plan back in 2019 due to limited development in the area of single-family dwellings, except for some existing multi-family properties.

After reviewing the College Park ARP (Area Redevelopment Plan), administration proposed an updated plan based on an analysis, as well as input from various stakeholders.

The proposal from administration for the updated College Park ARP is to support a wider range of housing types and revised design guidelines. These include a mixture of single-family homes, as well as three and fourplexes.

Bressey says as many of the properties in College Park are reaching the end of their lifespan, he says council is hoping that vacant and older homes that may be neglected can be replaced with new ones.

“Whether that’s somebody creating a property for other people to live in, or themselves to live in, you want to make sure people see this neighbourhood as a worthwhile area to redevelop and to build new houses to replace the new ones.”

Although, Bressey suggests the concern for wanting to maintain the character of the area while still allowing for a variety of homes to be built in the neighbourhood caused council to want to figure out what the land bylaw would look like if they were to make three and fourplex’e on a discretionary basis.

“If they did become discretionary, that would give the city more of an ability to say ‘yes this particular plan really works for the block it’s on, or no it doesn’t work.”

More concerns came from homeowners in the College Park neighboruhood, with much of their concerns revolving around a high number of renters in the area.

Bressey says he believes much of the concern came from a worry that with an increase in three and fourplexes, there would be an increase in only renters, not homeowners.

“I think the concern here is in every neighbourhood, but for it to be healthy, you want a variety of people in it and that means you have both people who are owning homes and people who are renting homes,” he said.

“We want to make sure that there still are homeownership opportunities in the community and its fundamental character doesn’t change too much.”

Administration will be bringing a revised plan forward to City Council on September 21 as to what the land bylaw would look like if three and fourplexes were allowed to be built on a discretionary basis only.

The College Park Area Redevelopment Plan was first initiated in 1998, which initially sought to preserve and enhance green aspects of the neighborhood.