Construction equipment lines up at the Coulee Ridge residential development in southwest Medicine Hat on Dec. 2. City council has passed changes to a development fee assistance program that pays the cost of new major infrastructure.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
A program to pay a share of private development fees out of city coffers will remain the same across Medicine Hat in 2021, but will increase to 90 per cent in cases of infill projects and along priority corridors.
Council approved the measure, which keeps the general “municipal assist” at 30 per cent, at Monday night’s council meeting by a 8-1 vote.
Those rates reflect council’s strategic goal of promoting redevelopment in several major corridors, according to background information provided by administrators who say the entire off-site levy system will be reviewed in 2021.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski said that extending the long-standing program that was last renewed in 2018 provides stability, but he strongly supports a full review next year.
Council members have typically argued the assist is a way to bolster or stabilize development and construction activity.
Registering the dissenting vote was Coun. Kris Samraj.
“I didn’t vote for it last year and I won’t again,” he said on Monday. “This subsidizes new development that won’t recover the cost to service them. We’re giving developers a subsidy for the privilege of increasing our infrastructure deficit.”
The 90 per cent rate will apply to all infill projects throughout the city, known as Node Zero, as well as major corridors.
Intensification areas include areas around the Medicine Hat Regional Airport, where the city’s land department is bringing commercial land onto the market, as well as the nearby the southwest light industrial park.
The higher rate will also apply to any new projects on Maple Avenue, the South Flats, Kingsway Avenue, South Railway Street, Downtown and Industrial Avenue.
Northern and southern stretches of Dunmore Road are also priority infill areas, along with major portions of Trans-Canada Way.
Off-site levies are charged to new subdivisions or projects in existing neighbourhoods that increase usage of city infrastructure, like water pipes, sewers and roadway systems, to defray the cost of new city construction.
