About $1.5-million in funds collected from developers in years past to put towards recreational or cultural amenities will be added to the city-wide reserve coffers.
Council approved the transfer of $1.584-million from the neighbourhood reserve fund, where it has languished unused for about three years, to the city-wide reserve fund on Monday.
The funds were collected as part of development agreements – reaching $1,700 per unit in 2011 – before a court case between Okotoks and a developer that took issue with such fees saw St. Albert stop collecting them.
The fees were assigned to specific neighbourhoods, and the transfer will leave a balance of $992,196 in place for the Lacombe Park, North Ridge, Oakmont and Woodlands/Parkwood/Kingswood neighbourhoods.
The standing committee on finance had approved the transfer unanimously, but in the weeks in between when that motion came to council to be ratified questions arose about the transfer of $1.5-million into city-wide reserves. That includes $571,209 in interest that’s been collected.
Coun. Cam MacKay said he’d had sober second thought about the transfer, adding there’s many local recreational amenities that could be built in neighbourhoods.
“We haven’t talked to the community,” MacKay said. “I think if you did ask the public they would want this money spent in the local neighbourhood.”
MacKay’s comments were similar to former mayor Richard Plain, who came to council on behalf of an ad hoc planning committee which suggested that meetings with residents should be held, as well as raising questions about some of the details of the money, including questioning why the neighbourhood of Erin Ridge was shown as being in deficit.
Coun. Tim Osborne said the vast majority of requests he hears from residents are for larger amenities that would benefit the whole of St. Albert, like another ice rink. Coun. Wes Brodhead made the same observations.
“We have the opportunity to build a fund that is of significant size that allows us to take on a bigger capital purchase or capital program and that’s what this is all about,” Brodhead said.
The staff report given to council did note that under the standard agreement made for the capital recreational contributions with developers there was no commitment to specifically allocate the funds to local or city-wide projects.
MacKay and Coun. Sheena Hughes voted against the motion to transfer the funds as recommended and make them available to fund new recreational or cultural facility projects. The motion passed 5-2.
In an email, Chris Jardine, general manager of community and protective services, said the money that was transferred was from neighbourhoods that are considered built out. Funds were left for four neighbourhoods not considered fully built out in terms of amenities like parks or trails.
Jardine explained that Erin Ridge is shown as in a $163,000 deficit because it was “caught mid-program” when the city stopped collecting the funds. The city had made commitments to build amenities, mostly trails, and had expected additional capital recreational contributions to cover the costs.
“However with the discontinuing of the collection of Cap(ital) Rec(reation) funds we ended up being underfunded as compared to the commitments,” Jardine said. That deficit is part of the transfer to the city-wide fund.
The city will still need to build recreational facilities in neighbourhoods, Jardine said, but they will have to find a different way to fund them.
Staff plan to recommend two projects be funded from the city-wide pool of capital recreation funds, which with the transfer will have a balance of just over $3-million.
Jardine said those two projects are related to neighbourhood park developments in Lacombe Lake and North Ridge.
