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Downtown enhancement considered |
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Written by Gordon Hoekstra
Citizen staff
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Monday, 22 June 2009 |
The mayor's downtown task force began consideration on Monday of a wide-ranging slate of recommendations to improve the city's core, including creating a special economic development precinct bounded by Second and Seventh avenues, and Queensway and Quebec Street.
The draft recommendations -- when they are hammered out -- will be captured in a report expected to be ready by September, the same time as a Smart Growth planning report is anticipated.
The draft discussion paper the task force is working on was created from the raw ideas contributed by several task force committees, which focused on economic, social, infrastructure, environment and cultural issues downtown.
Mayor Dan Rogers stressed the draft presented Monday was very preliminary. He told task force members -- who include city councillors and economic development, downtown, social and RCMP representatives -- that he expected it to take several more meetings to prepare a final report.
It was clear from the discussion Monday that some of the ideas were in their infancy and would need to be examined from a legal lens and benchmarked with similar initiatives in other communities. Rogers, in particular, urged some caution in ensuring any measures adopted would produce the intended result, investment downtown.
Among the more-developed recommendations presented in the draft discussion paper was the creation of the special economic development precinct downtown. Within its boundaries -- Second to Seventh, and Queensway to Quebec -- all development cost charges, and demolition, development, building and plumbing permit fees would be waived until 2016.
It was also suggested that for developments larger that five lots the city would waive fees for connecting to city utilities and off-street parking requirements. The recommendation also includes the city assisting in land consolidation.
The recommendations from the task force's economic committee also calls for the creation of a residential wood innovation zone bounded by Vancouver and Winnipeg streets and Fourth and 11th avenues. Within the area, a 10-year permissive tax exemption on improvements is to be considered.
"The idea it to provide some serious incentives that trigger activity," Tim McEwan, who heads the city's economic development agency and sat on the economic committee, told the task force.
However, it was suggested that it may make more sense to give bigger incentives to those first willing to invest in the special precinct. Other suggestions included setting a shorter time limit on incentives, or targeting them to specific sectors, for example, hotels.
Equally as important as creating incentives, is selling the story downtown, which will include a new plan, stressed Downtown Prince George president Kirk Gable, one of those who suggested a stepped approach to incentives.
Gable also highlighted the need to include an implementation strategy in the task force's report.
A Citizen review has already shown there has been numerous plans to revitalize downtown in the past 40 years, including at least three major efforts in the past two decades alone.
While some elements have been implemented, the revitalization plans have largely been unsuccessful. There are an increasing number of empty store fronts downtown, particularly along George Street, the city's historic main street. Some downtown business owners complain of open drug dealing and liquor consumption, aggressive behaviour of some street people, crime and vandalism, fighting when the bars empty at night, and a perception that downtown is unsafe.
The latest effort, the mayor's task force, got underway in February.
Other recommendations laid out in the draft task report included a call for public washrooms downtown, flood protection, a community energy system, a fibre optic network, a major transit exchange downtown, more housing, proceeding with the proposed Fourth Avenue streetscape improvements and building the new RCMP detachment.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 22 June 2009 )
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