A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.
Dawson Creek has made a big bet on the sun. The small city in northeast B.C., with a population of less than 12,000, is aiming to be carbon neutral heading into 2013. In 2011, it changed its building-code bylaws to require that every new house is built “solar ready” and to make it easier for homeowners to afford the infrastructure costs.
The province is reflecting on its digital days of yore, while beaming projections for a cyber future with 100-per-cent connectivity by 2021. The B.C. government says beginning this spring it will gear up on plans to bring affordable high-speed Internet to citizens in remote and geographically-challenging locations via broadband satellite.
A six-month wait, in the grand scheme of things, was not a long time for the developer of a proposed five-storey building in downtown Sidney.
On Monday night town council approved the building, which would see commercial space on the ground floor and 28 multi-family residential units above.
A group of residents vowing to fight construction of a greenway behind their Fleetwood homes showed up in numbers to a public information meeting last month to make their feelings known to the city. At the top of their concerns is that paving a path along 78 Avenue from about 156 to 168 Streets will increase crime in the neighbourhood.
Summerland’s mayor is hoping to jump the queue on a long-term transit study and get a bus service in her community by this fall. Janice Perrino said town staff has discussed with B.C. Transit the possibility of establishing a new link between Summerland and Penticton by the time students return to school in September.
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