The city has hired a consultant to come up with a plan to help create a long-term governance model for downtown redevelopment.
The cost for the work by HB Lanarc Consultants Ltd. - the same company hired with federal money to produce a long-range sustainability plan for the city - could be in the range of $10,000 to $30,000, depending on how much work they do, say city officials.
The project follows out of recommendations from the mayor's downtown task force given the green light by city council last month.
The downtown task force has already received a draft report from Lanarc on governance model options, none of which were necessarily new.
Creating an implementation model to sustain the downtown revitalization effort is considered a key task force recommendation, although it is not itself a new suggestion.
Similar recommendations were made in two previous downtown reports, a mayor's task force report from 1989 and a Time for Action Report from 1996.
The governance model suggestions from Lanarc includes a multi-stakeholder partnership and a municipal redevelopment authority either within the city or as a separate corporation.
The city has some experience with a downtown development corporation as it created one in 2002 as a result of recommendations from another report on downtown redevelopment.
City Centre Ventures, which has since died, was meant to be the custodian of the vision for downtown, promoting its implementation, monitoring progress and recommending changes where necessary, according to a consultant's report delivered to council in 2000.
There was some concern - cited by Northern Health representative Finley Sinclair and Initiative Prince George CEO Tim McEwan - that the governance model would not be ready in time to be funded in this year's budget. Budget requests were due Friday and deliberations take place early in the new year.
Derek Bates, the city manager, noted that the idea of setting up a contingency within the city's budget to help fund downtown task force initiatives is being considered. Mayor Dan Rogers noted that the task force will continue to lead implementation of the recomendations in the interim.
"We are making progress," said Rogers. "The key is, this isn't a sprint done overnight. There has to be a concerted effort over a long period of time to make the change that we want."
However, task force member Kirk Gable observed that the pace of work is too slow. "I don't know what else to say," said Gable, who heads up Downtown Prince George.
On Monday, the group will be asking council for the ability to seek a levy from downtown business owners.
Tackling downtown issues was a key issue in the last municipal election and was also raised at a downtown rally that attracted 600 to 800 people more than a year ago. The task force was established in January.
City staff have taken on responsibility for several task force recommendations, including examining how to develop a wood-first use policy and increase economic incentives. City development manager Grant Bain noted that it would be difficult to regulate the use of wood in framing of buildings except through incentives. But he told the task force that the province does allow communities to create revitalization development permit areas, which could give the city specific control of architectural and aesthetic features of buildings.
Staff would likely be able to return a report of their findings within months, but changes to neighbourhood planning would require consultation with those neighbours, which would take longer.
Quesnel has already adopted a wood-first bylaw for their community, following the lead of the B.C. government, which brought in wood-first legislation for provincially funded buildings.
One item from the downtown task force's list already slated to be part of budget deliberations is a program to keep the downtown clean. The downtown business improvement group is also considering whether to contribute to the program as well.
Initiatives Prince George, the city's economic development agency, is taking the lead on developing a downtown brand and a downtown marketing strategy, which is also not a new suggestion. Work was already carried out in this area in 2006.
2009 Prince George Citizen
