A Simon Fraser University researcher says current poor city planning in Kitimat is a result of decisions made decades ago.
Stephan Nieweler studied the downtowns of Kitimat, Terrace and Prince Rupert for his PhD project. He spent nearly a decade as a planner before getting his PhD in Geography.
He sought to answer the question, "In the context of renewed economic growth in northwest B.C., how has path dependency influenced planning and development outcomes in downtown areas?"
According to Wikipedia, path dependence is a concept in the social sciences referring to processes in which past events or decisions constrain later events or decisions.
"The conditions we have today and the opportunities we have today are very much linked to what we've been left with from the past," said Nieweler.
Much of Kitimat's historical development was tied around the thinking that everything had to revolve around the car, said Nieweler. Today's development is based on an over-reliance on large companies such as LNG Canada.
Kitimat mostly relies on two employers, which can be risky according to Nieweler.
"We saw in 2006, Methanex shut down, 2010 Eurocan shut down and then Alcan downsized," he noted. "Kitimat was in a very, very bad place back then. It has stabilized now because of LNG, but it's still risky. If you had more small and mid-sized businesses, you tend to have more economic stability, which I think is important for small towns."
Nieweler conducted this research by exploring the cities throughout their development history and by tracking development between 2015 and 2020. In those years, he walked every block of their downtowns, measuring every single change that happened, whether it was a new building or a renovation, or if a business closed or opened. He also interviewed planners, economic development officers, and politicians.
"Part of the research I did was looking at the composition of businesses in each downtown," he said. "There's far more entrepreneurs in Prince Rupert than Kitimat or Terrace because the downtown is so much stronger and vibrant."
Kitimat is a tough space for entrepreneurs to break into it, he concluded. Most of the businesses in Kitimat are chains whereas Prince Rupert has many independent entrepreneurs.
"If you want to start a business, where do you get the space?" asked Nieweler. "There's only a couple landlords and they try to keep the rent high. It's very difficult for an entrepreneur and it actually hurts Kitimat.
"Between 2015 and 2020, the only new development in downtown Kitimat was the Tim Horton's, Mr. Mike's restaurant, the hotel on top of the mall, and the condos built by the Haisla Nation on the old hospital site," he said. "That's not a lot of development."
Kitimat has a low level of commercial activity, the research showed, but it was not always that way.
"In the 1950s and '60s, the shopping was much better in Kitimat," said Nieweler. "Even the locals I talked to, they said, 'Oh, everybody from Terrace went to Kitimat to shop, and there was even a Hudson's Bay store in Kitimat then'."
REVITALIZATION
Kitimat's downtown core was nearly approved to be revitalized in 2020
"Around 2020, they did a new downtown plan and it was actually a pretty good plan from a planner's perspective," Nieweler said. "On the north side of the mall when you first come into town and you make that left turn, they were going to turn that into a Main Street with three-story buildings, retail on the bottom and either offices or residential spaces on top."
Council rejected the plan based on losing parking spaces.
"They said, 'The customers don't want to have to walk a few extra steps, they want to park right in front of the store'," Nieweler said. "In Prince Rupert on Third Avenue, it's kind of natural. Maybe you're going to walk a couple blocks. Nobody cares. But in Kitimat, they do."
Nieweler looked at the underutilized land in Kitimat's downtown, a quarter of which is surface parking.
"Kitimat has a large area of vacant lots, and I think it's partly because they thought their downtown was going to grow. They left land for it to grow and it never did.
"From a policy standpoint, how can you allow any new development at the edge of town, when you have so much land available downtown?" he asked. "And then you also have to build new infrastructure when you build at the edge of town and maintain the roads."
"Kitimat got their new McDonald's and where is it? It's at the edge of town. Why didn't they have that McDonald's downtown when there's all that land available?" asked Nieweler. "Community leaders were just excited to get a McDonald's and I don't think that's sophisticated enough thinking. It's not good planning."
Nieweler suggested the strong conservative culture in Kitimat has played an important role in the district's planning.
"Do you want to see positive change? Do you want it to look better? If you do, then maybe you need to start trying to direct the growth and development down there. I don't think it has been a priority for politicians and it has to be," he said.
Nieweler got inspired to do this project by a friend who moved to Prince Rupert. He visited in 2011 and his friend told him there's a lot of development coming and the city doesn't don't know how to plan for it. The friend suggested Nieweler should do some academic research on the subject.
"I'm probably going to come back in 2025 so I have a 10-year glimpse of how the downtowns changed," Nieweler shared.
