Stephan Nieweler, an instructor and doctoral researcher at Simon Fraser University, found that Prince Rupert’s downtown is the most diverse, resilient and sustainable compared to neighbouring cities Terrace and Kitimat.
“I think downtowns matter because they represent the history of a place, the identity of a place, the social connections in a place. It’s a meeting place for people, but it’s also economically important because it’s an opportunity for resilient and sustainable development,” said Nieweler.
He studied the three downtown areas by documenting their development from 2015 to 2020, analyzing local policies and official city plans, and mapping and measuring the land, among other methodologies.
He discovered that cities are influenced by “path dependency,” which means that historical decisions made during their most dominant era of development disproportionately affect their current state.
For example, Prince Rupert’s Bretton Hall plan from the early 1900s resulted in a large downtown grid that still remains physically intact, despite the city being relatively small. This layout was established before car usage became common, encouraging a pedestrian-friendly environment in the downtown area. This contrasts sharply with the layouts of Kitimat and Terrace.
The latter experienced significant development and investment during the 1960s and were heavily influenced by car culture, malls, and big-box stores according to the research.
Nieweler observed that while Prince Rupert implemented policies to incentivize development in its downtown area, Terrace allowed commercial activity to sprawl, such as allowing Walmart to open on the outskirts of town.
He notes that when cities allow malls to open outside the downtown area, it diminishes the residents’ pride in their downtown, making the city feel incomplete.
In contrast, Prince Rupert made the wise decision in 2008 to prevent a mall from opening outside the downtown area, instead allowing stores such as Walmart and Shoppers Drug Mart to set up in the city centre.
Prince Rupert has the highest number of buildings, extensive roadways, and the most establishments, including independent businesses and government organizations of the three urban centres.
It also exhibits a significant level of diversity intensity, which was determined by assessing the variety of establishments in different sectors such as food, health and wellness, government, industry, travel, and goods and services.
Having more independent businesses contributes to less risk and a more resilient economy.
“There’s far more entrepreneurs in Prince Rupert than there are in Kitimat or in Terrace,” said Nieweler.
He says this is a significant advantage because workers are not reliant on just a couple of employers, as they are in Kitimat. If the two leading businesses in Kitimat were to fail, it would have a devastating impact on the residents, as they experienced with the shutdowns of Methanex and Eurocan.
He also compared metrics such as surface parking availability, vacant lots and building age, revealing that Prince Rupert demonstrates more sustainable land use. However, it also has the largest number of vacant and unused lots in its downtown.
Ideally, cities try to avoid having excessive unused spaces. However, this availability can benefit entrepreneurs just starting out by providing them with reasonably priced setups.
Additionally, with businesses concentrated in the downtown area, owners have the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, socialize and build a supportive network.
Nieweler finds that by not being dependent on large parking lots and developing around them, Rupert sustains a culture of walking around and not driving right to the door of the stores to shop. Rupert’s downtown sees fewer car trips and better public transit access, resulting in more sustainability.
Nieweler analyzed local policies and said Prince Rupert has the most sustainable and prescriptive plan, with very specific targets. In 2019, the city hired Larry Beasley, a world-famous city planner, who created a detailed plan that included targets for downtown commercial and residential growth.
“It’s one of the best small-town downtown plans I’ve seen anywhere,” said Nieweler. Beasley typically works on plans for major cities such as Vancouver, Abu Dhabi, Moscow, and Dallas. It’s very rare to find someone of that calibre to plan for a city the size of Prince Rupert.
However, he noted that very little development occurred in downtown Rupert between 2015 and 2020.
“Rupert’s population started to decline in the 1980s, reaching a low point around 2016, and has stagnated since then," said Nieweler. "When I first started this project, everyone was saying, ‘Oh, there’s going to be so much development in boomtown,’ but it hasn’t happened. The only new construction was a real estate office.”
He feels Rupert is not developing at the expected rate, especially given the billions invested in the port. It didn’t translate into non-industrial development linked to permanent population growth.
Prince Rupert has a significant amount of vacant space, a legacy of overbuilding in the 1970s and 1980s when the population peaked at 18,000. Since then, the population has declined to about 13,000.
In recent years, several fires have destroyed buildings in the downtown area, leaving them vacant, yet he says there has been no investment to replace these structures. He emphasizes the importance of increasing residential development, enabling workers to stay long-term instead of relying on a fly-in, fly-out workforce.
Nieweler concluded that Prince Rupert has significant potential due to its existing infrastructure and the clarity of its policies and plans. He finds it to be the most forward-thinking city in the Northwest.
