Coming Up: January 23
Council meets on Monday. The most significant items on our agenda:
Delegations & Correspondence
Aquatera Dividends
Stormwater Utility Model
Aquatera Memberships
Stone Ridge Rezoning
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
At every Council meeting, members of the public are welcome to address Council. This week, a resident is coming to Council to ask for Bylaw changes in order to allow six hens to be legally kept on urban properties. The current limit is four.
Council will also be receiving and discussing a letter from a local company in regards to flight schedules. Council is being asked to advocate for more flights into and out of Grande Prairie.
I look forward to discussing these issues.
Aquatera Dividends
Council is asked to approve 2022 Aquatera Dividends totaling approximately $3.9 million for the City and $1.4 million for other municipalities. You can see the totals here.
Aquatera is fully owned by regional municipalities (the City, County, Sexsmith and Wembley). This means that 100% of dividends go towards delivering local municipal services, thereby lowering tax rates.
You can see more about how dividends are calculated and my take on them at www.bressey.ca/aquatera.
Storm water utility model
Stormwater management is a vital City service. It is also very expensive: costing about $7 million annually, it accounts for approximately 6% of taxes collected.
Because it is tax funded, how much people pay towards stormwater is only based on the value of their property. It is not connected to how much of the service they use. Council has been discussing changing this by moving towards a Storm Water Utility Model.
If this change is made, properties will begin receiving bills based on how much hard surface that sheds water they have. Rates will be calculated to collect exactly as much money as is needed to fully fund the costs of our stormwater system. Property taxes will then be reduced since they will no longer need to provide for stormwater.
It is recommended that Council give direction to Administration about the specifics of a Stormwater Utility Model. Administration will use this direction to draft potential Bylaws and Policies for Council consideration. You can read specific recommendations here. My summary of them:
Revenue Neutral: For every dollar the City collects through the Stormwater Utility, it should collect one less dollar in taxes. Stormwater fees collected should only be used to fund stormwater services, not to subsidize other City services. A clear annual report should be published to show that the Stormwater Utility is remaining revenue neutral.
Impervious Area Charge: The bills be calculated based on how much hard surface each property has. This hard surface will be determined by a computer program looking at aerial photos. There will be mechanisms to appeal that calculation if property owners feel it was wrong.
Exemptions: properties that don’t make use of the stormwater system will be exempt. For example: properties that drain directly into Bear Creek will not be charged.
Incentives: properties will receive credit if they take steps to limit stormwater runoff or improve stormwater quality. For example: properties which have flow limiters to reduce peak runoff might receive a discount on their stormwater bill.
Grants: properties that don’t pay taxes because they provide a community benefit might be eligible for grants.
Although I have questions about some of the specifics listed above, I will be supporting Council moving towards a Stormwater Utility Model. Changing our stormwater system from tax-funded to user-pays is a more fair way to fund it. Incentivizing properties to shed less stormwater is good for the environment and for our infrastructure. A Utility Model will make sure that future capital costs are fully funded. Finally, many residents prioritize having comparable property taxes to other cities. To achieve that, we need to have similar non-tax revenue. Since many other cities collect a Stormwater Utility Fee, implementing one ourselves is crucial to getting tax rates in line.
IMPORTANT NOTE: there is no consideration being given to selling off our stormwater system or having another organisation operate it. If a Stormwater Utility Model is adopted, City staff will still run the system. All that is being contemplated is changing how it is funded, not how it is operated.
You can see more about why I support a Stormwater Utility Model at www.bressey.ca/stormwater
Eastlink Centre Memberships
Significant effort has been put into increasing memberships at the Eastlink Centre. This is a strategy to increase revenue and therefore decrease taxpayer subsidy to the Eastlink Centre. But more important, it is key to making sure that the facility is better utilized by residents.
This effort has been successful. In the second half of 2022, memberships increased from 1,840 to 2,828.
To further this effort, a few changes to both simplify and enhance memberships are recommended. They include:
Amalgamating Senior, Student, and Youth into one membership category. It will be charged the current Youth fee, meaning that there will be a slight price reduction for Seniors and Students.
Eliminating prepaid annual memberships. Instead, there will be two types of monthly memberships. Residents can pay for one month only. Or save money if they signup for a recurring monthly membership. If they signup for a recurring membership, they can still cancel at anytime.
Creating a new membership type. Members could choose to pay slightly more to get access to not just the Eastlink Centre but also other City facilities such as Dave Barr and the Outdoor Pool.
I’ll likely support these changes. They seem common sense to me.
STONE RIDGE Rezoning
Council is asked to approve a rezoning in the Stone Ridge neighbourhood. This is south of the Eastlink Centre, directly across from the Community Knowledge Campus.
The rezoning concerns a 5-acre multi-family site. 1 acre would be converted to Commercial, leaving 4 acres for multi-family housing.
In general, I’m supportive of changes like this. This is a neighbourhood that will have well laid out infrastructure and a good mix between single-family, multi-family, commercial, and public service development. In most cases like this, I would be fine with allowing the free market to tweak the exact proportion of commercial and residential development.
However, this land is different than other neighbourhoods. It is right across the street from two high schools and the City’s biggest recreation facilities. It is also in very close proximity to South Bear Creek and Muskoseepi Parks. Stone Ridge has increased value because of hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars in public investment. As the City grows, we should prioritize having as many residents as possible live close to these amenities. It is especially important for lower income residents to be able to live here, which requires multi-family housing stock.
Right now, due to some challenging fiscal times, there is a lot of incentive to allow development to happen wherever it can happen. This creates local jobs and increases the City’s tax base in the near-term. However, when I think about the City decades from now, it is likely in our interest to preserve housing opportunities in this neighbourhood.
I always go into meetings with an open mind. I look forward to debate and will consider supporting this re-zoning. However, in the past, I have voted against other re-zonings which errode residential land in the Stone Ridge neighbourhood. I lean towards doing the same again.
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