Taxpayers will be the real losers

Dear editor: Kelowna’s official community plan (OCP) sets residential density limits that trigger the need for new roads as the city grows. This public policy sounds good, but does not work because Mayor Colin Basran and his pro-development council ignore it in favour of developers carrying bags of cash.

A case in point is a 2015 decision by council to support a developer who came forward and offered to finance the South Perimeter Road to service his subdivision in the Upper Mission area 15 years ahead of schedule.

Basran’s council ignored the fact that the OCP population trigger had not been reached and failed taxpayers by diverting funds away from much-needed and longsought after road upgrades to Lakeshore Road that will delay those upgrades for another 15 years.

Basran’s council will also ignore taxpayers when they approve using the alternative approval process rather than a referendum to decide if the project should proceed and divert taxpayer money to the developer.

According to the agreement between the developer and the city, the project is estimated to cost $11 million. The developer will pay the entire cost of designing and building the road in lieu of paying any road development cost charges (DCC) for his project. Once the road is completed, the city will remit the full cost of the road back to the developer over a 35-year period.

In addition, the city will also provide a 28 per cent DCC subsidy from taxpayers to the developer to offset any road, park, sewer and water servicing costs needed by his subdivision project.

The one public benefit from this agreement is that the city gets a road 15 years ahead of schedule without having to finance its construction.

Unfortunately, the public costs are much greater and include: opening up the southern slopes for new developments well ahead of schedule; disrupting the 20-year servicing plan; denuding forested hillsides; impacting wildlife habitat areas; siphoning money from taxpayers; and, delaying Lakeshore Road upgrades.

It’s a sweet deal for the developer. He gets his road, his subdivision subsidies and his money back. Taxpayers are the real losers. They will not get their Lakeshore Road upgrades until 2035 and must forfeit their accumulated road tax funds to the developer.

Once again, Mayor Basran and his council continue to make poor decisions that fail taxpayers.

Richard Drinnan, M.Sc. Kelowna