Burnaby to rezone land to block new prison

Burnaby city council has found a way to block the province from building a new high security prison on the site of the former Willingdon youth detention centre, the mayor says.

The area near Canada Way is currently zoned as institutional, but the B.C. city's council is planning to rezone it to better reflect the area's current residential-commercial mix and block the provincial government from building the pretrial holding facility, Mayor Derek Corrigan said.

"We're given the ability to do this under the community charter," Corrigan told CBC News.

"We think it's an entirely appropriate way to deal with the problem. We've used it before, Vancouver's used it before, other municipalities have used it before in order to deal with the rezoning that really is out of touch with the present-day reality."

Burnaby will hold a public hearingabout the rezoning,Tuesday at Burnaby Central Secondary School.

The provincial government has said the site is the best choice for the Lower Mainland Pretrial Centre because it was previously used for a correctional facility and its central location next to Hwy. 1is ideal for transporting prisoners to courtrooms around the Lower Mainland.

Bid to blockzone changewould peeve voters: Mayor

The Liberal government could try to block the rezoning, but that would likely alienate voters in Burnaby with a provincial election just months away,Corrigan said.

"Remember that [Premier] Gordon Campbell is the person who put in the community charter and indicated he wanted to see municipalities with more autonomy and more ability to be able to determine how their community grows and develops," he said.

"So he gave us the ability to do this and the question is, when it doesn't suit him, is he going to take it away?"

Corrigan's opposition to the jail has nothing to do with the fact his wife Kathy is running for the NDP in the riding, he said. Thousands of people have called city hall to say they oppose the pretrial centre andhe simply wants what is best for the people of Burnaby, Corrigan said.

"It's very, very frustrating for not only for our residents but for our business community to see the provincial government come in and impose something that's going to have such a deleterious effect," he said.

Centre would relieve crowding, province says

Construction on the site at the southwest corner of Willingdon Avenue and Canada Way in Burnaby, close to a B.C. Institute of Technology campus, isscheduled to start in 2010. The centre would be completein 2012.

The Burnaby Youth Detention Centre, which operated on the site until 2007, is scheduled to be demolished this year to make room for the new facility.

The provincial government has said it needs the facility to deal with overcrowding in the two other pretrial facilities in the Lower Mainland, which are already operating above 200 per cent of capacity.

The land, which is already owned by the government, has been used for 50 years as a site for correctional facilities and other government facilities, meaning there will be no financing, zoning or environmental hurdles, according to the province.