“as long as they meet existing guidelines”

They are guidelines. They are not standards.

The OCP is a “guideline”. It is not a standard.

The OCP “guidelines” can be accepted or not by the owner or developer.

Better to have some design guidelines than none at all. I’d rather see some consistency and flow in street front facades instead of a possible patchwork of ugly, out-dated, unrelated, non-flowing visuals.

Except for the re-installation of paid parking there is no better time for small to medium-sized businesses to invest in downtown PG. Businesses get a 10 yr tax exemption and a 5 to 10 thousand dollar grant for facade improvements… not a bad start.

The downtown is dead. Facade improvements will not save it.

It’s negative thinking that prevents any project that can improve the core from moving forward. It’s highjack lease rates that prevent local businesses from utilizing the downtown core. It’s poor city planning that allows the core to be filled by outreach services that don’t promote actual “business development”. It’s small town thinking in what proclaims to be a “city” from allowing forward thinking business people the opportunity to develop our down town core. Flower baskets and fresh paint don’t resolve an issue with poor city planning.

The down town core isn’t “dead”, but dressing up the front of a decrepit building doesn’t resolve the issue that most of the buildings in the core are out dated unsafe and non compliant with current standards. Case in point 175 Quebec is a “pretty” looking ugly building. Light fixtures hanging down, water stained ceiling tiles. There are many more like it, you just need to spend some time at city hall to find out “who” owns it. The city needs to start fining these clowns and forcing them to develop or sell or lease it out. Make the building owners address the issue of slumlord attitude.

Professional, you proclaim that downtown isn’t dead, but you have spelled out many reasons why it is. We’ve been talking about downtown improvement for at least the last 30 years and look where we are today. So, forgive my negativity on the matter.

Hey Johnny, don’t sweat it. I wasn’t implying you were being “negative”, sorry my friend. I am concerned about the general attitude among many people out there about the downtown core. But you did point something out very clearly in your response. “30 years of talking about it” is dead on the point.

Enough with the talking, let’s get it rolling already. People can talk till they are blue in the face, review groups and the like are just a waste of time and money. We need to actually be proactive and as the phrase coined in Prince George goes “Getter Done”. Enough talk, let’s see counsel “grow some “and do what we elected them to do, turn it around without a lot of B.S. squabbling and bickering. Run the “city” or get out! Sure some people don’t like change, get over it, don’t like it, change your vote on election day.

Parking meters? Guess what they are coming back and they should be extended to every city held parking lot and venue. Down town core revitalization? Well as I mentioned earlier, if you can’t lease it and keep it in presentable shape then sell it. Fine the offenders, “the property owners” and make it public knowledge who the offenders are.

Turn the spot light on some of the “actual owners” and make them explain how and why they can’t look after the properties, maybe we should turn the heat on the property management folks too, they are responsible for maintaining the properties appearance is in keeping with the area the building is in.

Urban renewal; It’s still the same, only diffrence is it’s in a plastic bag with a pretty bow on top, at it’s core it’s still just the same old (insert wording here).

I couldn’t agree more professional. The City has traditionally done a poor job of enforcing certain bylaws, especially around property maintenance and appearance.

There seems to be a traditional hesitation by the City to look like the ‘bad guy’ by putting some of these landowners under the spotlight. I can’t see this changing any time soon.

Parking meters was a failed experiment. People just saw free all-day parking and took full advantage, including employees and business owners. The City (perhaps naively) hoped that people would more or less police themselves, but it didn’t turn out. They have only themselves to blame.

I couldn’t agree with you more. We pay taxes to have these “clowns” run the fair. They should actually worry about fixing the “issues” instead of trying to pile into a little car. Asphalt plant? Really? Seriously I would hazard a guess that if the city didn’t have to spend the money over “shear stupidity” of a specific individual we could have bought an *asphalt plant (*which we don’t need). flawed math, poor fore sight, bad management and no “balls”. City hall isn’t in the business of making friends, they are in the business of running a responsible city. Shame the word “responsible” never falls on one person’s shoulders there.

Here we are “flogging that dead horse” again and an upcoming election is no where to be found. How strange. Gadzooks! Let’s form another committee. And talk about this only when there is an election.

Absentee landlords, and business’s that do not want to spend their own money, along with many facilities for the disadvantaged is part of the problem with downtown.

Some business’s spend money on small projects, but for the most part everyone wants to spend taxpayers dollars so that they can make a fortune in real estate, construction, etc; They rarely if ever put their own money on the line. That is the major problem.

Another big problem is the City being involved in the real estate game. They are the biggest land owners in the downtown area, and could not tell you at any given time what the hell they are going to do with all this property.

Furthermore the City is always working behind closed doors, looking for grant money, proposing multimillion dollar projects, and basically running the City on the basis of whats good for the Administration as opposed to whats good for the City.

Furthermore this City is for all intents and purposes bankrupt, and has been for sometime. Our roads are an indication of gross mismanagement of tax dollars.

Problem is we havent learned anything yet. There are still a bunch of bozo’s who want to tear down the Playhouse Theatre, and sell the property for commercial development, and then use the money to build a PAC which will then be subsidized by the taxpayers of Prince George, because under the present conditions, a PAC could never be self supporting.

The question is. How many **white elephants** does it take to kill a City. We are well on our way to providing the answer.

We seem to lack the basic instincts to stop the City from foolish spending. The new $40 Million police station with $25 Million plus interest over 20 years is a prime example. How could we the citizens of Prince George sit back and allow this sort of expenditure, considering the state of our finances in this City??

The City will use smoke and mirrors, to justify and build the PAC.

They built the Community Energy System while we sat on our arses and stared at the telly. This system is already an unmitigated failure, and will never produce the reduction in emmissions or the cash flow for the City that was projected. In fact there is a good chance that it will do the opposite. All we hear from the City is the pro’s of this project but none of the con’s.

I could go on and on, but whats the point. What we need in this City is a lot less words, and whole hell of a lot more action.

“Except for the re-installation of paid parking there is no better time for small to medium-sized businesses to invest in downtown PG”

The retailer who rents space from an owner gets no rebate unless the owner passes it along. The owner might, instead, pick up the rebate ans charge the lease holder more rent due to the improvements.

The real point here as voiced by others who have posted, is that the City is broken and next to broke. Our newly elected counsel seems content to just carry on with shenanigans and as mentioned earlier (spend money on needless multi-million dollar projects). I want a City counsel who stops the needless spending and funding for stupidity and out side interests* (*these being things that don’t directly benefit the residents of the City). It’s not just this administration but previous administrations as well that are to blame for this outrageous waste of taxpayers dollars.

I have sat in on a few counsel meetings and I can tell you there are a few clown that are there just simply wasting time (and money). Let’s do a review of this and a cost analysis of that and a time management of what ever. I don’t know if these “individuals” read opinion250, but they should and if they do they know who they are and should be ashamed of how they are performing in the interest of the City populous as a whole.

We have infrastructure that is beyond repair; it needs to be replaced lock stock and barrel. We have roads that well; I have been on better logging roads than City streets. The crime issue is due to, as Palopu mentioned, the poor zoning and licensing from the city. Let’s hike up that taxes, gas tax, and property tax and should I continue?

10-year tax breaks to those who spend up to and over 50,000.00 on façade renovations. There’s a line of BS what small or medium business has that kind of cash to spend (unless they own the building they are in). As Gus mentioned and is more often than not the actual case in point, building owners and property management firms will often charge the tenants more on the following year’s CAM (Common Area Maintenance or often phrased as Extra Rent) based on the leased square footage and billed monthly to the tenant for such building envelope improvements “façade”.

I bet there is no condition is this plan to prevent the building owners from gouging the tenants for the renovation they do? Seeing that 7 out of 10 buildings in the downtown core have been neglected by the actual owners. So yet again the owners come out smiling and the tenants and the general public get screwed again. How does the general public get screwed? Simple the cost increase to the business owners has to be passed on to the consumer “general public” in the manner of increased cost of goods or services sold. No small wonder small and medium retail business in the core has a tough time making a go of it. Why is it that the businesses have to pay for flower baskets? What the hell is the parks department doing anyway, they get paid year round so why are they not out putting baskets out on the lamp stands.

I understand the urban, neighborhood and business street pride, I own a business myself and paid for my own damn flower baskets, but almost break my neck tripping on the crappy sidewalks to put them out daily. I live here now and had done so for the last 7 years, but I am seriously beginning to wonder who’s running the show here in Prince George? Is it the city planners and managers or city counsel? Clearly from the counsel meetings I have attended it appears that the counsel doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing. The DBIA seems again to be staffed by those who have connections with property owners and those of special interest. Hummm funny how they want business owners to attend all these pie in the sky events they hold, however when you go to vote for the board your name some how isn’t on the list……..