PRINCE GEORGE – According to Business in Vancouver, a lack of municipal planners is hampering progress on the development front.
The City of Prince George has seen, in recent years, an explosion of not only development permits but the value of those permits. And the City has a full complement of planners.
As far as we can afford.
“Right now, the City of Prince George is fully staffed,” says Councillor Garth Frizzell. “And by fully staffed, I mean that Council sets a budget every year. And we have to the city planner budget allows for X number of city planners.”
But Frizzell says, that while the City of Prince George is not in a pickle, smaller municipalities likely can’t make the same claim.
“Let’s face it, if there is if there is a supply problem, if there aren’t enough people who can do the work and there is an increasing demand for those people, it means that the price goes up.
In the last few years, the City has seen incremental record-breaking development permits and values. $220 million in 2020, $237 million in 2021 and $251 million in 2022. That has dropped but that’s tailed off significantly since the start of the year. Don’t panic, says Frizzell.
The City’s planning department is still anticipating a bumper year for permits and their values.
