City of Powell River has been granted $500,000 from the province for the de-stumping and landscaping of 20 acres of airport land.
At the April 27 city finance committee meeting, director of properties, development and communications Scott Randolph said he was appearing before the committee with good news.
“In early December, the BC government put out a call for applications through its rural economic diversification and infrastructure program,” said Randolph. “We decided to go ahead with an application for $421,757.82, which was 80 per cent of the project cost. The project cost overall was estimated to be $527,197, which would have left us with 20 per cent of the cost, which was estimated at a little over $105,000.
“On March 7, we received great news that our application had been approved. A week after they told us they had approved it, they upped the amount to an even $500,000, which is pretty sweet.”
Randolph said that reduces the city’s share to $27,197 and an application has been submitted to Powell River Community Forest to pay for that amount.
Randolph said the objective is to clear land that had been harvested last year at the airport on the south side of the landing strip. He said about 20 acres have been designated, and that the area will be de-stumped and landscaped.
“The intention is to market these lands for development in the future,” said Randolph. “They are already zoned airport service industrial, so we don’t have to do anything with regards to rezoning. We are able to lease them out, for long term, if need be. If we’re lucky and we do everything within the budget, we might be able to extend services into the site as well, which would make it that much more attractive.
“What we’ll end up with at the end of the day is 20 acres of industrial land available for development in our community, which is something we don’t have anywhere else at this time. Because it is outside the fence, it does not have to be restricted to aviation uses.”
Other areas that are not part of the commercial zone have been designated for replanting, according to Randolph. He said the recommendation was for city council to approve receiving grant funding from the province in the amount of $500,000 for the de-stumping and landscaping of 20 acres of airport lands and that the remaining cost of $27,197 be allocated from Powell River Community Forest.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked where access to the site would be from. Randolph said off the end of Field Street.
Finance committee chair councillor Trina Isakson said she was curious about development at the proposed site, versus the southwest Field Street and Manson Avenue portion of the property. She said the airport master plan talked about putting in a new access from Manson to avoid using Field.
Randolph said there was still consideration that a road could be established from Manson to the properties, but because the land has been cleared and already harvested, and the ability to de-stump and landscape it, the proposed land makes more sense in terms of future light industrial development at the airport.
The finance committee voted to send the matter to city council for approval.
