Downtown PG in 2025.

New Plans. Big Fires. Oh my.

Hi everyone. Long time no see!

I hope you’ve all been doing well and aren’t too upset for the month-long hiatus. I can only just explain my absence with the dull excuse of getting absolutely way too busy through December into the holidays, then getting super sick right before New Years.

Oh - also, I got married last week.

A sincere applause all around to my wife Brittany for signing up for a lifetime of annoying ramblings about walkability and urbanism, and in general, never being able to enjoy the peace and quiet of a city or urban trail.

Anyways - that’s enough of that. It’s been over a month since we checked in on things and boy have things been happening - here’s a quick snapshot of some of the most relevant ones to this newsletter’s core content:

The Mayor “sees modular housing as a big part of Prince George’s future” and joins a pro trailer park Mayor task force despite voting down trailer park developments just a year earlier?!

The City proposes a 5.83% increase on taxes to, more or less keep the lights on, and most excitingly, up to about 8% if we actually want to see service upgrades.

Moccasin Flats continues to be dismantled with 10 remaining residents.

A massive fire breaks out in a downtown second-hand store warehouse.

I’ll be honest and say I’ve been feeling overwhelmed at the idea of writing again - where do you even start?

But, sage, wise, eternal friend of the newsletter

Andrew Kurjata

once told me to not overthink these moments - to just begin writing, press publish and move on to the next one.

So that’s what we’re doing today and we’re beginning the new year to just do a broad overview of the newest capital P plan on the block:

THE CIVIC CORE DISTRICT PLAN.

---

3 plans. 1 downtown.

That’s right. After months of consulting the public via booths at the mall, the market, and other forums and avenues - the City emerged in December with 2 plans.

I present to you, the very sexily named: Plan 1 and Plan 2:

Oh - and wait, we cannot forget a 3rd plan designed by Mayor Yu which includes the IMAX Theatre cut into Connaught Hill, the rapid transit hub, the amphitheatre, and the 2-tier skywalk connecting the luxury hotel and the high rise apartments.

Watching this play out in December, I can only just say that if I did smoke, I would have gone outside and taken a looooong drag and muttered something like “here we go again.”

But, lucky for my cardiovascular health, I don’t smoke - unluckily for my mental health, I write a silly newsletter.

A long story short, Plan #2 is chosen.

---

Plan #2

Before we get too mired in the “but how is this even going to happen” of it all, I want to pretend like these might come to be one day, and approach them seriously and fairly.

Let’s talk about Plan #2.

Turning Dominion Into 2 Lanes: I want to begin with this because I think this is low key the unsung hero of this plan and I think will actually have one of the biggest impacts on the *vibe* of this area. Widening the walkways where Patricia becomes Dominion, putting down trees and generally causing vehicles to slow down to 30-40km/hr will DRASTICALLY impact walkability for the better.

Green Space: It cannot be overstated that the currently proposed green space/parks would be game changers for the vibe of our downtown. The current concrete plazas and parking lot markets leave a lot to be desired and I can easily imagine a Saturday morning spent at the pool, the park, and some local restaurant/cafes.

Performing Arts Center + Downtown Arena vs The CN Center: I, like many Facebook commenters, do find myself really curious how this overlap can exist in a town the size of PG. I love the idea of moving these things downtown and think the commerce it could bring to our downtown businesses could be RADICAL but I struggle to see a world where these all exist and are used regularly.

Why does the 7th to George connector continue to exist?: I feel like I bring this up every second newsletter but for the love of all that is holy, just shut down that connector to cars, make it a wide walkway, even add bollards for fire access if necessary but making that greenery in front of city hall extend into a full plaza for hosting markets would just be so lovely. Huge miss on this plan.

Parking: Listen - I have written entire newsletters on how much space we yield to stupid parking lots so I hate that I’m writing this BUT we also have to be realistic about the cards we’re playing with and PG loves to drive downtown. The current parking situation in that area relies VERY heavily on the space that will eventually become an apartment, a performing arts centre, and a park. I think the plan certainly assumes some amount of underground parking but I do worry about the A) price that adds (parkades have a history in this town) and B) residents being frustrated to the point this never gets off the ground.

Small commercial: I see the Mixed Use Residential building as being the make-or-break keystone of this whole thing - attracting and supporting small retail/service businesses in this area will be key to drawing pedestrian traffic from nearby commerce hubs and hotels. For the love of all that is holy, it cannot be a dentist office, an insurance/mortgage broker, or a gym. We need a Makerie, we need a Ritual, we need a Homework, Nest & Sprout, and Dandy Lines - drawing in pedestrian foot traffic to this area is going to be crucial and these businesses have to be thoughtfully recruited for this.

---

The Part I Don’t Want To Say Out Loud

*deep breath*

We’ve been here before.

In 2009, the Smart Growth on the Ground Plan largely outlined a different but also remarkably familiar version of this.

I mean, yes, they envisioned redirecting the river from near LTMP all the way up to downtown but that aside, the plan imagines that area in largely the same way - full of green space, de-prioritizing cars, creating community nodes, and supporting mixed residential/commercial.

The 2007 report on parking downtown specifically names wider downtown sidewalks, and a re-prioritization of pedestrian traffic including narrowing of streets and education sessions on vehicle/pedestrian safety.

I wrote a whole newsletter about this last year - our ability to pay for really expensive plans but then do very little about them.

I really want to celebrate Plan #2.

It isn’t a perfect plan, but I do believe that even if we’re measuring these changes in decades, approving of Plan #2 feels like it should be the beginning of that arc.

But I look back at the 2009 plan, nearly 16 years later, and I see a shadow of what the SGOG plan set out to do. I see a pool downtown, I see a quasi UNBC campus downtown, and a little cement plaza outside it, but I feel like it has otherwise been 16 years of the same philosophy chipping away at the edges of downtown, while simultaneously failing to adapt to the social needs of our growing homeless population.

I fear we’re just going to repeat the same mistake with this Plan.

16 years from now, I fear I’m going to be writing this same newsletter and boy oh boy, I really don’t want that.

---

Where I See This Going

You thought that was the end, didn’t you?

I would be amiss to not, at the very least, acknowledge the elephant in the room.

Change is expensive. Rebuilding the core of your downtown is VERY expensive.

As I mentioned up top, we’re set to ask for a 5.8% tax increase this year just to maintain the status quo, and our taxes are already some of the highest in the province.

The City of PG website has this blurb for next steps:

Administration will now proceed with technical studies and site planning, ensuring the City is well-positioned for future development and investment opportunities.

This will determine a roadmap for the next step to identify future public and user group engagement. Staff will return to council in 2025 with more details on the plan including details of each facility, economic analysis, a timeline, and financial information.

I REALLY want to leave this newsletter on a note of optimism because I’m also the same guy who would be writing a newsletter about a lack of plan and direction so let me just say I understand the damned if we do, damned if we don’t nature of this.

1. Administration will return with some costing for this.

2. It’s going to be a lot of money, more money than we can even wrap our heads around.

3. Our largely fiscally conservative council is going to wring their hands about wanting to move forward but not seeing a path with the current budget constraints.

4. We’re going to acknowledge that the current tax increases are already unpopular and that we’d be looking at a MUCH steeper increase to take this on.

5. It will be kicked into the future, and eventually forgotten with some version of it living on the website until some writer finds it in 16 years.

LET ME BE CLEAR: I WANT TO BE WRONG.

Oh lord, I would love to be wrong about this. I would love some donor to come forward to foot the bill, or for the City to be bold and approve it despite the tax implications (which, for the record, I would support).

I would even accept (and celebrate) just changing Dominion to 2 lanes and planting some trees and calling it a day.

Anyways.

That’s my glowing newsletter for today - what a return eh? Just a shining beacon of hope.

Have a wonderful weekend and now that we’re back to post holiday real life, I’m hoping you see this newsletter in your inbox at a more regular pace.

---