Some folks feel shut out in booming Fort St. John
Booming Fort St. John — bracing for an anticipated LNG bonanza — is looking to expand its boundaries.
The northern Peace River community will approach the B.C. government asking to incorporate surrounding areas inside its city limits.
But some landowners and business owners just outside the city boundaries accuse the city of shutting them out of the proceedings.
Jared Giesbrecht, whose Peace River Building Products store would become part of the new expanded city, claims that 80 per cent of those outside the city oppose the expansion — but fears the expansion-keen council wants to ignore them.
“This is outrageous,” said Giesbrecht, whose request to present 74 signed position statements to council was turned down. “How can the mayor and council simply dismiss landowners when they attempt to present their views to city council?
“How can they simply shut their doors and ignore the dozens and dozens of folks who object to their plans for expansion?”
Mayor Lori Ackerman told The Province the city needs to expand to help house the legions of workers expected if the much-ballyhooed LNG expansion pans out.
“If the LNG facilities come onstream, this is where the gas will come from,” said Ackerman, whose 20,000 or so residents are packed into a community smaller in size than nearby Taylor and its 1,500 residents. “I’m told we will be at 30,000 within the decade, and that we’ll level out at 40,000.”
A Boundary Extension Application Fast Facts handout on the city’s letterhead appears to back Giesbrecht’s claim that the city is determined to expand regardless of what he and others think.
The handout states the city wants landowners and business owners to express their opinions “to determine if these issues could be mitigated — not to debate whether or not the extension should proceed.”
Ackerman said one proposal being considered to appease the expansion opponents would be to freeze tax rates for the new residents and business owners until they sold their property, rezoned it or connected to the city’s water and sewer systems — which are currently unavailable outside the city limits.