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The city of Gresham is the latest city to waive city fees to encourage business relocation to its core urban areas.

Gresham City Council on Tuesday approved two programs to waive city-related fees for small businesses that relocate to vacant storefronts in downtown Gresham.

The Vibrant Storefront Initiative allows businesses operating in the commercial areas of downtown, the Civic Neighborhood and Central Rockwood to waive initial business license fees, development related fees and system development charges.

In addition, the Initial Business License Incentive will eliminate business license fees for any new business of 5,000 square feet or less that is moving into an existing vacant commercial space throughout the city.

Though the city of Gresham will absorb some of the cost of the waived fees, it expects the impact on its budget to be less than $150,000.

Both programs will be available to new and expanding businesses of 5,000 square feet or less between now and March 31, 2011. Businesses that met the criteria after Feb. 17 are also eligible.

The city of Molalla also recently announced it would waive up to $1 million in SDCs for developments in its downtown.