Résumés
Abstract
Downtown revitalization remains a key priority for planners working in communities across North America. In small and mid-sized cities, downtown decline and disinvestment has been particularly noticeable, long affected by the patterns of suburbanization, and more recently, by the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study, based on a survey of planners working in British Columbia, evaluates the state of downtowns in British Columbia’s small and mid-sized cities. These findings highlight the strengths of downtowns as broadband availability, civic events and street-oriented retailed, whereas the most pronounced and common weaknesses are the absence of post-secondary institutions, high-density housing and frequent transit. The findings also illustrate that strengths and weaknesses vary across the cases, accounting for variations in city size and regional contexts. Additionally, this study highlights the prospects and impediments of downtown revitalization into the future, with six major impediments.
Keywords:
- downtown,
- small and mid-sized,
- urban planning,
- Canada,
- British Columbia
Résumé
La revitalisation du centre-ville demeure une priorité clé pour les urbanistes travaillant dans les communautés de l’Amérique du Nord. Dans les villes petites et villes moyennes, le déclin et le désinvestissement des centres-villes ont été particulièrement visibles, longtemps impactés par les modèles de suburbanisation et, plus récemment, par les effets persistants de la pandémie de Covid-19. Cette recherche évalue l'état des centres-villes situés en Colombie-Britannique, examinant leurs forces et leurs faiblesses, ainsi que les obstacles à la revitalisation des centres-villes. Les résultats suggèrent que les forces et les faiblesses varient selon la taille de la ville et la géographie, alors que les obstacles au changement au centre-ville sont communs dans toute la province.
Mots-clés :
- centre-ville,
- petites villes et villes de taille moyenne,
- aménagement,
- Canada,
- Columbie-Britannique
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Bell, D., & Jayne, M. (2006). Conceptualizing small cities. In Small cities: Urban experience beyond the metropolis (pp. 1–18). Routledge.
- Bell, D., & Jayne, M. (2009). Small cities? Towards a research agenda. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33(3), 683-699.
- Birch, E. L. (2005). Who Lives Downtown Today (And Are They Any Different from Downtowners of Thirty Years Ago)?. Report Prepared for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Retrieved on October, 17, 2011.
- Birch, E. L. (2009). Downtown in the “new American city”. The annals of the American academy of political and social science, 626(1), 134-153.
- Brewer, K., & Grant, J. L. (2015). Seeking density and mix in the suburbs: Challenges for mid-sized cities. Planning Theory & Practice, 16(2), 151–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2015.1011216
- Bunce, S. (2004). The emergence of ‘smart growth’ intensification in Toronto: Environment and economy in the new official plan. Local Environment, 9(2), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354983042000199525
- Bunting, T., & Filion, P. (1999). Dispersed City Form in Canada: A Kitchener CMA Case Example. Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe Canadien, 43(3), 268–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1999.tb01385.x
- Bunting, T., Filion, P., Seasons, M., & Lederer, J. (2007). Density, Size, Dispersion: Towards Understanding the Structural Dynamics of Mid-Size Cities. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 16(2).
- Burayidi, M. A. (2018). Downtown revitalization in small and midsized cities. American Planning Association.
- Coiacetto, E. J. (2000). Places Shape Place Shapers? Real Estate Developers’ Outlooks Concerning Community, Planning and Development Differ Between Places. Planning, Practice & Research., 15(4), 353–374.
- Curry, J., & Llewellyn, J. (1999). The revitalization of downtown Prince George. BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly, (124), 69-92.
- De Sousa, C. (2017). Trying to Smart-In-Up and Cleanup Our Act by Linking Regional Growth Planning, Brownfields Remediation, and Urban Infill in Southern Ontario Cities. Urban Planning, 2(3), 5. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v2i3.1026
- Downs, A. (2005). Smart growth: Why we discuss it more than we do it. Journal of the American Planning Association, 71(4), 367-378.
- Eberts, R. W., & McMillen, D. P. (1999). Chapter 38 Agglomeration economies and urban public infrastructure. In Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics (Vol. 3, pp. 1455–1495). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0080(99)80007-8
- Filion, P. (2024). Past, present and future revitalization trends in Canadian mid‐size city downtowns. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien, 68(1), 12-23.
- Filion, P., & Hammond, K. (2008). When Planning Fails: Downtown Malls in Mid-Size Cities. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 17(2), 1–27.
- Filion, P., & Hoernig, H. (2003). Downtown Past, Downtown Present, Downtown Yet to Come: Decline and Revival in Middle-Size Urban Areas.
- Filion, P., Hoernig, H., Bunting, T., & Sands, G. (2004). The Successful Few: Healthy Downtowns of Small Metropolitan Regions. Journal of the American Planning Association, 70(3), 328–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360408976382
- Gordon, D. L. A., & Janzen, M. (2013). Suburban Nation? Estimating the Size of Canada’s Suburban Population. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 30(3), 197–220.
- Graham, R., Han, A. T., & Tsenkova, S. (2019). An analysis of the influence of smart growth on growth patterns in mid-sized Canadian metropolitan areas. Planning Practice & Research, 34(5), 498-521.
- Graham, R. (2023). Calgary and the “creative class”: The interface between public policy and gentrification. City, Culture and Society, 32, 100489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2022.100489
- Graham, R. (2024). Do young adults want to live downtown? Understanding attitudes in Prince George, BC. Planning Practice & Research, 39(3), 417-440.
- Graham, R., & Dutton, J. (2021). Obsolescence as an opportunity: The role of adaptive reuse in Calgary's office market. The School of Public Policy Publications, SPP Briefing Paper, 14.
- Graham, R., & Filion, P. (2024). Intensification in the city centre: Barriers to implementation in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien, 68(1), 57-71.
- Graham, R., Han, A. T., & Tsenkova, S. (2019). An analysis of the influence of smart growth on growth patterns in mid-sized Canadian metropolitan areas. Planning Practice & Research, 34(5), 498-521.
- Grant, J. (2009). Theory and Practice in Planning the Suburbs: Challenges to Implementing New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Sustainability Principles. Planning Theory & Practice, 10(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649350802661683
- Grant, J., Filion, P., & Low, S. (2018). Path dependencies affecting suburban density, mix, and diversity in Halifax: Suburban path dependencies. The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe Canadien. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12496
- Gregg, K. (2024). Placing the North American Post-war Pedestrian Mall Within the Legacy of Downtown Urban Renewal. Journal of Planning History, 23(3), 167-196.
- Groulx, M., Kieta, K., Rempel, M., Horning, D., & Gaudreau, K. (2022). Smart Growth in Canada’s Provincial North. Planning Practice & Research, 37(2), 231–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2021.1979786
- Hagen, Z., & Walker, R. (2024). Generating demand for a downtown lifestyle in Saskatoon, a mid‐size city. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien, 68(4), 589-602.
- Hartt, M. D. (2018). How cities shrink: Complex pathways to population decline. Cities, 75, 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.12.005
- Hartt, M. D., & Hollander, J. (2018). City Size and Academic Focus: Exploring Trends in Canadian Urban Geography, Planning and Policy Literature. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 13.
- Jackson, T., Gopinath, D., & Curry, J. (2012). Dirigiste and Smart Growth approaches to urban sprawl: lessons from Scotland and British Columbia. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 10(1), 45-67.
- Jamal, A. (2018a). Coworking spaces in mid-sized cities: A partner in downtown economic development. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 50(4), 773–788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18760857
- Jamal, A. (2018b). From Operational to Aspirational? Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) in Mid-Sized Cities. Planning Practice & Research, 33(5), 506–522. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2018.1548214
- Jamal, A. (2018c). Regional Planning and Urban Revitalization in Mid-Sized Cities. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 27(1), 24–36.
- Leong, M., Huang, D., Moore, H., Chapple, K., Schmahmann, L., Wang, J., & Allavarpu, N. (2023). Can we save the downtown? Examining pandemic recovery trajectories across 62 North American cities. Cities, 143, 104588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104588
- Moos, M. (2016). From gentrification to youthification? The increasing importance of young age in delineating high-density living. Urban Studies, 53(14), 2903–2920. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015603292
- Moos, M., Filion, P., Quick, M., & Walter-Joseph, R. (2019). Youthification across the metropolitan system: Intra-urban residential geographies of young adults in North American metropolitan areas. Cities, 93, 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.017
- Nicol, P., & Biggar, J. (2024). Optimizing urban density: developer positions on densification in two mid-sized cities. Planning Practice & Research, 1-20.
- Robertson, K. (2001). Downtown Development Key Trends & Practices. Policy Brief, 8, 1-2.
- Robertson, K. A. (1995). Downtown Redevelopment Strategies in the United States: An End-of-the-Century Assessment. Journal of the American Planning Association, 61(4), 429–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944369508975655
- Rosen, G. (2017). Toronto’s condo-builders: Development approaches and spatial preferences. Urban Geography, 38(4), 606–625. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1179426
- Sands, G. (2007). No finer place: Planning core areas in mid-sized Canadian cities. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 2(3), 249–259. https://doi.org/10.2495/SDP-V2-N3-249-259
- Sands, G., Reese, L. A., Saghir, C., & Filion, P. (2022). Planning for post-pandemic downtowns of mid-size urban areas. Planning Practice & Research, 37(3), 393-405.
- Seasons, M. (2003). Monitoring and Evaluation in Municipal Planning: Considering the Realities. Journal of the American Planning Association, 69(4), 430–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360308976329