The Kamloops Chamber wants the city to make it easier for businesses to redevelop less-desirable pieces of land.

Executive director Acacia Pangilinan says the Chamber plans to ask the city to amend its revitalization tax incentive bylaw, as she says that bylaw right now is “quite limiting.”

She says a tax incentive would make it more appealing to re-develop brownfield sites in particular – which are vacant sites that have been contaminated.

“This is definitely an opportunity for Kamloops but the bylaw does need to be amended. So we’re really looking forward to working with the city on this one to make it so our businesses can access that tax exemption,” Pangilinan says.

“There is some appetite for this to be looked at, and I know there were some city councillors who had talked about this during their election campaigns too. So I’m hoping that we’ll be able to move forward on this pretty quickly. But because of the nature of timing, we’ve talked about this with city staffers but it hasn’t been on our books yet.”

Pangilinan says the cost of developing higher-quality commercial space can be a deterrent for businesses.

It’s unclear when a proposed bylaw amendment could come before Kamloops city council.