City OK’s 14 new suburbs, and required tax hike
City council has approved plans for more than a dozen new suburban communities on Calgary ’s periphery, requiring a bump in property taxes in the next four-year budget to help cover the costs of growth.
Council voted 12- 2 to approve 14 greenfield developments following a lengthy debate in chambers Monday.
City staff initially recommended just eight projects from a list of 16 last June, but following weeks of discussions with developers and fine-tuning of proposals, a further six projects were added to the list.
“We want to be open for business,” said Coun. Ward Sutherland defending the increased number of communities Monday. “We want to support business. Previously, we were too riskadverse and we need to challenge ourselves (and) take that risk.”
While the bulk of the costs for the new communities will be borne by developers, tens of millions in capital costs will have to come from city coffers in the next four-year budget. The city is also expecting to cover temporary shortfalls in operating revenue while the communities are building out.
Approving all 14 projects could require up to a 0.75 per cent increase in property taxes over the next four years.
A one-time, $4-million cash injection from the rainy day fund was also approved to help fund operating costs associated with the proposed South Shepard development in the southeast.
Coun. Druh Farrell, who largely opposed adding more communities than what was initially proposed, urged administration to consider the costs of completing existing communities before committing to new ones.
“We’re always behind in providing libraries and other essential amenities to create (a) neighbourhood,” Farrell said. “We’re struggling to provide those amenities to existing new communities, let alone new ones. And every community in the city deserves to be complete.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi supported adding at least one additional project to the mix Monday.
He said the city is living up to its commitment to ensure suburban developments pay for themselves in the long run. Nenshi said the introduction of the off-site levy in 2016 ensures that capital costs associated with growth are largely carried by developers.
“Most of the cost of development pays for itself,” Nenshi said. “However, there are some residual things, particularly on operating, like firefighters’ salaries, that will remain with all taxpayers.”
The new neighbourhoods greenlit by council Monday span all four quadrants of the city, though the bulk of the proposals were in the north. Nenshi and Farrell were the sole dissenting votes on council when it came to adding additional communities to the list. Coun. Ray Jones was absent from the vote.
Nenshi said Monday that a managed approach to growth has led to developers coming to council with better plans for their communities.
“It’s not secret that for a long time new neighbourhoods on the fringes of the city sort of looked exactly the same as one another,” Nenshi said. “But what we’ve seen here is really innovative thinking: (employment centres) closer to home; you have street grids that are easier to serve by public transit and lead to less congestion; there’s far fewer cul-de-sacs; and every one of these neighbourhoods has a real mix of housing types and the income and age levels at which they attract people.”