A flurry of appeals by developers to the subdivision and development appeal board (SDAB) led council Monday night to discontinue a controversial practice of charging for the development of neighbourhood recreational amenities.
Council approved a series of motions that will not eliminate the practice but sets the fee developers pay in capital recreation contributions to zero.
“I think moving forward on this will keep us in line with other communities from a competitive aspect,” said Coun. Malcolm Parker.
So-called ‘cap rec’ payments have been a topic of concern since November, when the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the method the Town of Okotoks used to collect cap rec levies fell outside what municipalities are allowed to do under the Municipal Government Act (MGA). Under the MGA, municipalities can only collect levies for key infrastructure such as storm, sewer, water and roads. The decision has thrown the cap rec contributions of other communities, including St. Albert, into disarray for fear they could also be sued.
As of Monday, according to city solicitor Gene Klenke, four developers had appealed the requirement to pay cap rec levies to the SDAB, which has adjourned all of the cases until council had made a decision.
Council has never passed a policy on cap rec – it has simply been a condition of development since it was approved by the council of the day in 1984. At that time developers were required to pay a fixed amount per unit, which was evenly split between recreation developments for the city as a whole and for the individual neighbourhood. As of 2011, developers were paying approximately $1,700 per unit.
Administration has been preparing a policy on cap rec, including how to deal with neighbourhoods that have remaining cap rec balances, but have reached full build-out, a policy Mayor Nolan Crouse said he wanted to see before voting Monday night.
“I did not feel we were ready yet. I felt we should have all the policies in place before we took that move forward,” Crouse explained, after voting against the motion along with Coun. Roger Lemieux.
In its place, the city will issue new development permits that require developers to install trails, lighting, benches, garbage cans and other recreational amenities to the city’s standards.
Council’s decision became effective immediately after Monday night’s vote. Klenke explained that setting the unit amount to zero instead of abolishing the cap rec program in its entirety would save the city the headache of reviewing different area structure plans that compel cap rec payments, which would mean having to hold new rounds of public hearings. Klenke also advised against pursuing any kind of voluntary levy.
“We can always ask but the option would there for developers to refuse it,” Klenke said.
St. Albert and other Alberta communities have been waiting since January for the province to address the issue, when then-Minister of Municipal Affairs Doug Griffiths asked the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC), Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) and the Urban Development Institute (UDI) to hold a meeting of all ‘key players.’
To date there has been no sign the province will be taking up the issue anytime soon. Crouse distributed a copy of Griffiths’ January letter, saying it was the most recent communication he’d had from the province since the Court of Appeal ruling.
