On the right track

Alderman is determined to bring Ctrain to city’s southeast

There’s no doubt that Shane Keating is thinking outside the box to secure funding sooner rather than later for a southeast CTrain line.

The Ward 12 alderman is pitching the idea of a community revitalization levy — the same kind of tax mechanism that breathed life into the East Village — to fund the rapid transit corridor.

But as Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths suggested last week, it may be a bit of a stretch to argue that the absence of southeast LRT service is the same as a dilapidated district such as the East Village, which was in need of seed money to spur its revitalization and gentrification.

“The purpose of the community revitalization levy is to take a sector, a part of the city that isn’t able to be developed because of the dwindling infrastructure and the lack of people who want to invest in that area,” Griffiths said in an interview. “I’d have to see exactly what details they have, because I’m not quite sure it applies to light rail transit.”

Such levies permit cities to take out hefty loans and repay them over a long period of time using the additional property tax revenue generated in the designated district. The scheme is funding the $242-million East Village makeover, including tax revenues from the nearby Bow tower. The assumption behind the measures is that property values, and hence taxes, will rise as development that would have been otherwise impossible, or unlikely, takes form. Improvements assisted by the East Village levy include the 4th Street S.E. underpass, the central library, a new streetscape and a spruced-up St. Patrick’s Island.

Edmonton has used the tool to put financing in place for its new downtown arena, and Cochrane has received provincial permission for $13-million worth of improvements near its commercial core using the mechanism.

It’s fair to ask how the financing model could be applied to the southeast LRT. The ribbon of land that would benefit from CTrain service has to a large extent already been developed, and siphoning off future property tax revenue from the surrounding districts could beggar city coffers, requiring city council to impose higher tax rates than would otherwise be contemplated to make up for the shortfall.

“If you take it according to the letter of the legislation, it may not fit,” conceded Keating, who has nonetheless received council support for a short workshop to explore the idea. He has noted there are several future southeast transit stations that would foster major office, shopping or residential growth — which bolsters the argument that the line would indeed be a form of revitalization.

The Ward 12 representative deserves credit for keeping the need for a southeast LRT corridor in the political sphere. It was a project Mayor Naheed Nenshi included in his election campaign in 2010, and one that has been complicated by ambitions to improve transit service elsewhere in the city. Whereas the southeast project once battled the west LRT leg for funding, it now competes with Centre Street for scarce public transportation dollars.

We wish Keating and the rest of council nothing but the best of luck in finding innovative ways to fund needed infrastructure such as the southeast LRT.