Council votes down bid to consider tax relief during construction ordeal

An eight-year drainage construction marathon in front of several West Jasper Place homes has residents wondering just how extreme damage needs to be before council considers tax relief.

It postponed neighbourhood renewal, leaving them with the only cracked sidewalks in the community, and at times wafted odours so bad it made some feel sick.

Residents worry they can’t sell their homes but still pay full property taxes.

“At what point is construction no longer temporary? This has been a long, long process,” said Ward 1 Coun. Andrew Knack, who asked council Tuesday to consider compensation in these types of extreme cases.

His request was for a report on whether a compensation policy is possible and advisable.

Council voted 9-4 not to open what some called a “can of worms.”

Businesses near the 102 Avenue bridge over Groat Road also asked for compensation after steel girders on that bridge buckled, postponing completion for one year and redirecting customers away from shops on the avenue, said Ward 6 Coun. Scott McKeen.

He looked into tax relief then, but it was incredibly complex.

“To be consistent here, we need to do what we’ve done historically.”

The law gives Edmonton the right to do the work necessary to keep the city functioning. That’s especially true for a drainage project needed to keep toilets across the entire western portion of the city working, said Mayor Don Iveson.

Council needs to remember, Iveson said, “What we don’t collect from one taxpayer, we have to collect from someone else.”

Only councillors Knack, Jon Dziadyk, Aaron Paquette and Mike Nickel supported the request for information.

The drainage project in West Jasper Place was supposed to take two years. But once crews got in, they found other lines in the area were in terrible shape. They were hanging on by “ribs and lagging,” according to one report.

Knack said he believes construction is now scheduled to finish this fall, followed by neighbourhood reconstruction.

Epcor officials, who took over the file when drainage transferred to the city-owned utility in September, were unavailable for comment.

Knack said residents appealed their property tax assessment. That’s supposed to reflect the value of the property, which residents argued was much lower because of the never-ending construction.

However, their appeal was denied. Because none of the homes affected by construction was sold, no one could prove the value was reduced.

The issue is also a high priority for small businesses, said Amber Ruddy, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The organization surveyed 5,573 small businesses nationally last year and found 43 per cent had been negatively affected by municipal construction projects.

Of those, seven per cent suffered to the point where they considered closing or relocating.

“It’s more than just dust, dirt and no parking. It’s an attack on their livelihood,” Ruddy said.

The federation appealed to Canadian municipalities to take this into account at they embark on a major new federally-funded building spree.

Its first recommendation is to have compensation for extreme cases, or at least a symbolic amount to ensure these impacts are tracked as part of the bottom line, she said.

This is common in European cities.