Prince George city council tabled discussion on a proposed pilot program aimed at utilizing vacant downtown storefronts after more than an hour of discussion at its Monday, Aug. 18 meeting.
Coun. Trudy Klassen gave notice of the motion called “Vacancy to Vitality: launching a temporary use pilot for empty storefronts in C1 zone downtown” at the July 28 council meeting.
In the documents she provided, Klassen asked council to direct city staff to investigate the creation of a one-year temporary occupancy pilot program for parts of the downtown core zoned for commercial use and report back to council by the end of the year.
She proposed that vacant ground-floor commercial spaces be permitted to be used for “community-enhancing uses” like art studios, small retail, entrepreneurial enterprises, cultural spaces, food service, community services, creative manufacturing and other purposes suggested by partners like Downtown Prince George, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, Community Futures Prince George and Indigenous communities.
Discussing her rationale, Klassen’s report states that parts of the C1 zone have vacancy rates of up to 25 per cent, with vacant storefronts fuelling perceptions of stagnation that are worsened by homelessness and economic transition.
Partners like Downtown PG, she said, support a pilot program to utilize vacant storefronts and that it could help artists and entrepreneurs overcome barriers like complex permits and high start-up costs.
Klassen pointed to a similar motion passed by Coun. Mike Klassen of Vancouver city council for the Downtown Eastside, where storefront vacancy rates approached 32 per cent. The other Klassen’s motion passed Vancouver council unanimously.
The PG councillor also pointed to a newsletter written by Darrin Rigo in July lamenting all the businesses and amenities the downtown has lost in recent years like The Makerie, Birch and Boar, Millennium Park, Pastry Chef and more.
On top of the pilot program development, Klassen also asked her council colleagues to direct staff to report back on the success of the program by the fourth quarter of 2026, explore special event permits for short-term activations in the downtown core and create a list of recommendations for infrastructure maintenance, reports and other issues needed in the C1 zone.
Speaking at the meeting, Klassen said her key focus was making it easier for small and pop-up businesses to utilize vacant downtown storefronts. She added that she didn’t think the program had to unfold exactly as she proposed, but she thought it should form a part of the city’s downtown strategy.
The city’s role in this, she said, should be to reduce barriers as much as possible.
Coun. Susan Scott said she supported the initiative.
Coun. Brian Skakun asked if Klassen would be willing to delay her initiative until after an ongoing zoning bylaw review, review of the Official Community Plan and arts plan are complete.
Coun. Cori Ramsay said she wanted more information on what this project would mean for city staff. She said she had spoken with Vancouver councillors, who said their project had been about expediting occupancy permits in vacant storefronts.
With a ton of ongoing construction and limited resources for development services, Ramsay said she wanted to know the impact if there was an expedited process just for the downtown.
“I think it’s a great idea, I’d love to see more storefront utilized downtown for temporary or trial-type businesses to see if it works,” Ramsay said. “But also, I think considering a motion to connect with Vancouver administration to find out how they’re implementing this (is warranted).”
Responding, Klassen said she didn’t include the word “expedited” in her motion. She said she was looking to reduce barriers small businesses face with paperwork and making the permitting and licensing process as simple as possible.
Ramsay responded that expediting was a term used by Vancouver’s program. For Prince George, she was looking for more clarity on how the local program would work.
She said that in the case of Vancouver, that city’s charter does not allow for temporary use permits and the pilot program was brought forward to help address that.
Coun. Tim Bennett said he liked the idea of encouraging more business downtown as the more people who come downtown on a regular basis, the easier it will be to deal with issues facing the area.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said that he wasn’t understanding which barriers Klassen wanted to help businesses overcome.
Klassen said she assumed city staff would know some of the hiccup points experienced by local businesses and how to make it easier for them to set up operations.
Sampson said that from his personal experience, it was easy in the past to get a business license. He asked director of planning and buildings Deanna Wasnik whether things had changed recently.
Wasnik said the licensing process hasn’t really changed, but sometimes there are reviews or reports a business needs to have completed like a building code review before applying. She said she also wanted to know what some of the hurdles Klassen was looking to overcome.
In particular, Klassen said, because the vacancy rate is so high, she thought there must be some problem downtown.
Coun. Garth Frizzell asked how much extra work Klassen’s motion would make for them in developing the downtown strategy.
Wasnik clarified that the downtown strategy is led by Downtown Prince George and assisted by partners like the Prince George Chamber of Commerce. She said while it would be a big deal for the city, she’s not sure of the impact the project would have on the partner groups.
Later in the meeting, she said it wasn’t her understanding that businesses were having difficulty obtaining occupancy permits downtown.
Frizzell said that if Vancouver has already established a program, it might not take as many resources to create a scaled-down version for Prince George.
Klassen said that if the wording of her motion isn’t quite right, she’s happy to have staff come back and propose alternative solutions to help address downtown storefront vacancies. She criticized her colleagues for not asking her any questions in the weeks since she gave notice of her motion at the last meeting.
Coun. Ron Polillo said he likes the idea, but it needs to be fleshed out before it can be considered. He agreed with Skakun that a postponement was warranted.
Mayor Simon Yu said he was hesitant to always refer things to staff as they have limited time to devote to projects like this.
Sampson chimed back in to say that he didn’t like that downtown was referred to as empty and boring during the discussion, saying that was offensive to business owners in the area.
Skakun said the conversation was emblematic of dysfunction within council, saying they were going nowhere after an hour of discussion.
Ramsay proposed amending the motion to have staff look at a strategy within the existing downtown strategy to deal with vacant storefronts.
After more than an hour of discussion with councillors still finding issues with the proposed plan, the discussion was postponed until the Sept. 3 council meeting.
