Coming Up: March 8
Council meets on Monday. The agenda includes:
Delegations and Letters
Downtown Rehabilitation Borrowing
Downtown Association Budget
Re-zoning in Kensington
Vehicle for Hire Bylaw
Following is more information and my take on agenda items.
As always, any mistakes or opinions belong to me and me alone, not to Council or City staff.
While I express my current views below, I work hard to go into meetings ready to listen and with an open mind. I learn new information and participate in debate. This always informs, and sometimes changes, how I vote on issues.
If you would like to watch the meeting or read any of its supporting material for yourself, you can do so by clicking here. The City will post the highlights of Council’s decisions here.
DELEGATIONS AND LETTERS
During our meeting on Monday, Council will be hearing from a number of external organisations through delegations and letters. These include:
Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta: to request $20,000 in funding for a COVID-oriented Vital Signs report
Youth Advisory Council: to hear about its plans for 2021
Grande Prairie Public Library: to thank the City for its financial contribution to operations over the past year
Minister of Municipal Affairs: to inform the City on how the provincial budget impacts municipal funding
DOWNTOWN REHABILITATION: BORROWING BYLAW
This summer, Phase 4 of the Downtown Rehabilitation Project will be happening. This will replace aging roads, sidewalks, and pipes on 100 Ave between 100 St & 98 St. It will also upsize pipes so that more dense development can be accommodated in the future.
A project like this takes a lot of time to plan and procure. It was approved by Council in 2019. At the time, I voted against this project. You can see why here. While I understand the benefits and see merit in this project, but was not convinced that the infrastructure required replacement at this time.
However, this project was approved by Council. Council has not changed course. And contracts to go ahead have been signed. This project IS happening this summer. Which means that no matter how we feel about the project, all Councillors should be focused on seeing it happen as smoothly as possible. Part of that means paying for it from an appropriate source.
When it approved this project, the funding source selected by Council was borrowing. Now we are at the stage where a Borrowing Bylaw has to be passed. The Borrowing Bylaw will authorize up to $14,000,000 in debt to be taken out for a 30 year term. At today’s interest rates, repayment will cost the City ~$650,000/year.
Debating this Bylaw is not a debate about whether or not the project should happen: that decision has already been made, the project is happening. This is just a debate about how to fund it. I don’t see other viable funding sources available for a project this large.
I also think that it is appropriate to ask future tax payers pay for the downtown infrastructure they’ll enjoy. That is best accomplished by funding it through debt repayment, rather than having current taxpayer upfront the full cost.
Despite not supporting the project’s approval, I will likely be voting in favour of this Borrowing Bylaw on Monday.
Something I do want to touch on is the timing of this project.
I’ve had some suggest the project shouldn’t go forward this year because of the pandemic and because of the economic downturn. I get the concern here. But I also get why my Council colleagues who support the project think it should continue this year. If it is going to happen sometime in the near future, there are a lot of reasons 2021 is better than 2022 or 2023. Those include:
A lot of people are out of work right now. This will create jobs in our community.
With the economic downturn, we don’t have big competition against private industry for labour and material. That means now is a less expensive time to build.
When the City takes out debt, interest rates are maintained throughout the whole term: they aren’t variable. And today’s interest rates are low. This will further reduce the cost of this project.
Many downtown businesses are facing COVID restrictions. Many are also receiving rent and/or wage subsidies from the federal government. If construction is going to make it harder for customers to access businesses, many feel it is better for that to happen this year than in a year where they could be fully open and there are no subsidies available.
VEHICLE FOR HIRE BYLAW
Council will be debating a Vehicle for Hire Bylaw. It will regulate commercial passenger transportation such as taxis, chauffeurs, and designated drivers.
Previously, Vehicles for Hire were regulated through the Business Licensing Bylaw instead of their own Bylaw. And municipal regulations were dated. For example, they made it difficult for Taxi and Limousine companies to use new technologies such as electronic dispatching. They also provided no regulation to several segments of the industry, including Designated Drivers, Shuttle Services, and Transportation Network Companies (ie: ride-share companies like Uber of Lyft).
I do support this Bylaw. It is a much needed modernization to our regulations. That being said, there are a few amendments I’ll likely be proposing or supporting on Monday. The most significant one: the Bylaw as it is written does not require companies to accept electronic payment. Electronic payment is an important protection for customers that I think should be written into the Bylaw.
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DOWNTOWN BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT AREA BUDGET
In 1984, the Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA) was formed. Businesses within this zone pay a special tax that funds the promotion of our downtown. This budget is set and administered by the Downtown Association, but collected by the City.
Council will be voting on whether or not to approve the 2021 Downtown Association budget of $302,507. I currently intend to support this budget. It was created by the Downtown Association board of directors, and approved by its membership at a recent AGM. I don’t think it would be appropriate for Council to override their budget decisions.
Something worth noting: the province has recently decided to no longer pay its property taxes, including the taxes its properties pay towards the Downtown BIA. This means that the Downtown Association is facing a budget reduction of ~$60,000. This will have a noticeable impact on events and beautification efforts downtown.
KENSINGTON REZONING
Council will be considering a re-zoning that is proposed in Kensington. This is a new neighbourhood being developed west of 116 St. This re-zoning would allow for a more dense part of the neighbourhood with narrower lots to be built.
I’ve got concerns about this re-zoning.
Over the past decade, a lot of changes have been made to make dense development more desirable to live in. These include maximum driveway widths to allow for on-street parking, changes to how rear lanes are designed, and limits on how many secondary suites are allowed. These mitigate a lot of the concerns created in the past by neighbourhoods with dense housing.
Because of these changes, I’ve supported some re-zonings which allow for narrow lots. If a neighbourhood is thoughtfully designed so that narrow lots are across from green space, side yards, or homes which have their driveways coming off of a rear lane: I’m often supportive of them.
However, the proposal Council is looking at on Monday goes a little beyond my comfort level. Specifically, there is one block of the proposed neighbourhood which would have narrow lots with front driveways down both sides of the street. This is likely beyond my comfort level for narrow lot development.
I’m going into Monday with an open mind and several questions I’ll be asking. However, supporting this re-zoning will be a hard sell for me.
That’s what is on our agenda for Monday. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You can comment below. Or, you can contact me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166. I'm happy to talk online or over the phone. I'm also always willing to setup a time to meet for coffee.
We also always have great conversation in the GP Round Table group on Facebook.
After Council meeting, you will be able to find highlights posted by the City here.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan