Council to address London Road Park bylaw amendment
Lethbridge city council today will be asked to give first reading to Bylaw 6438, a land use bylaw amendment for 714 7 St. S. and a portion of 620 7 Ave. S. A report to be presented by community planner Ross Kilgour says Opportunity Lethbridge has applied to rezone the southwest corner of London Road Park and the adjacent property “to enable development in line with London Road Area Redevelopment Plan (LRARP) policy.
“In 2018, the LRARP identified options to improve residents’ concerns about safety in London Road Park. One option was to redevelop the isolated, south-west corner of the park along with the adjacent property (714 – 7 Street South) to provide medium-scaled residential facing the remainder of the park. This would provide “eyes on the park” and enable the remainder of the park to be better utilized,” says the report.
If approve the proposal would see a reduction in the park’s size by 634 square metres or 26.8 per cent.
The report says the redevelopment plan was developed over years of engagement with the neighbourhood and “sets out a vision and policy for London Road Park and surrounding properties. This identified issues with ‘the park being viewed by the community as an unsafe space that attracts unwanted uses.’ It called for ‘altering the park design to improve clear sight lines and visibility into the park, while eliminating isolated or hidden spaces within the park, and… encouraging development that provides increased “eyes on the park.’”
The property at 714 7 St. S. is a single detached dwelling, says the report. It notes the park was created in the early 1980s and it is unknown why that property wasn’t purchased and developed at that time, which “led to the park being a somewhat unusual ‘L’ shape that wraps around 714 – 7 Street South. This results in the south-west corner of the park being relatively out of view and isolated, which is further exacerbated by the presence of a berm in the park which partially blocks sight lines between the south-west corner of the park and public sidewalks to the north and east,” says the report.
Council will also be asked to give first readings to three tax bylaws.
Bylaw 6434, the tax-installment prepayment plan bylaw will let residents pay their 2025 taxes in 10 equal monthly installments from Aug. 1 of this year until May 1 of 2025.
It will also let people setting their remaining 2025 taxes via automatic withdrawal on the last business day of June 2025, enroll 2023-24 taxpayers in the ’24-25 TIPP cycle automatically, give taxpayers a two per cent monthly discount on the credit balance through participation in TIPP and waive currentyear penalties by paying all taxes in full and submitting a TIPP application form by Sept. 16 with approval required.
This bylaw must be enacted before May 15 for administration to calculate the new 2024-25 TIP amounts in the tax notices that will be generated that date.
Council will also be asked to give first reading to Bylaw 6435, the 2024 property tax and supplementary tax rate bylaw.
This bylaw sets the property tax rates to be imposed by the City on property in Lethbridge. It also sets the tax rates required to raise the acquisitions for the Alberta School Foundation, Holy Spirit Catholic Separate Regional Division 4, the Green Acres Foundation and the Designated Industrial Property requisition.
The bylaw also authorizes the levying of a supplementary tax on properties occupied or completed in 2024, says a report to be submitted and presented today by Assessment and Taxation manager Larry Laverty.
Council meets at 12:30 p.m.
Property tax manager Kerry Boogaart today will ask council to give first reading to Bylaw 6436, the Downtown BIA Tax Rate Bylaw which allows the city’s Downtown Business Revitalization Area to raise revenue as per its budget, set the tax levy date to be June 28 and direct administration to charge penalties on unpaid tax levies.