Councillors to be briefed on growth-fee recommendations

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This article was published 30/08/2016 (3358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Councillors will get a closed-door briefing Thursday morning on the controversial Hemson report – the commissioned independent study that’s expected to propose hefty new fees for residential and non-residential development.

While Hemson Consulting has released its preliminary findings, the final report is due at city hall Wednesday and copies will be presented to councillors at the meeting.

Mayor Brian Bowman, who supports the imposition of new fees on development, told reporters Tuesday he hasn’t seen the final report nor has he been briefed on it. He repeated his position that the fees are necessary.

Bowman said the study will show the cost of growth, on a variety of civic services, how much of that growth is being paid by developers and the means to recover the cost.

“I’m looking forward to seeing that study and then we’ll go from there and have a healthy discussion on the issue of who is going to pay for growth,” Bowman said, pointing out that similar fees are charged by all major Canadian cities as well as by the communities surrounding Winnipeg — a refrain he repeated several times during an 18-minute exchange with reporters at city hall.

“The question we really need to resolve is who should pay for that growth — all taxpayers, or should it be those that are responsible for that growth?”

The residential development industry has been opposed to Bowman’s plan, disputing Hemson’s preliminary findings and vowing to produce its own study that will show its projects do support the community and generate millions of dollars in property taxes every year.

This is not a new issue. Former mayor Sam Katz raised the need for new development charges in the fall of 2013 but at the time, the civic administration said council needed legislative changes to get the authority to impose those fees and the Selinger government refused. Premier Brian Pallister said recently he wouldn’t support giving city hall any additional powers to impose new fees, but Bowman said the city will use its existing authority if it agrees to introduce new fees.

City officials have yet to explain why they now believe city council has the power to impose new fees — which are likely to be challenged in court by the development industry — and Bowman said he expects to see an administrative report on how the fees can be imposed on the development community.

The consultant’s preliminary findings, which are available on the city’s website, breaks down the cost of a variety of city services – parks and open spaces, community services, police, fire and paramedic services, planning, active transportation, roads, transit, water, sewage and stormwater, solid waste – and applies those costs to new development projects.

The fees will have a dramatic impact on development. The preliminary data showed a potential fee of over $30,000 for a new residential lot. If, for example, a developer were to construct the 15,000 square foot grocery store many people want downtown, the growth fee alone would be $309,090, according to Hemson’s preliminary findings.

The fees could even climb higher as Hemson had not included the cost of fire and paramedic service for any type of development. City economist Tyler Markowsky said those figures would be included in the final report and factored into the final document.

The fees are considered long overdue by opponents of urban sprawl and by some inner-city councillors, who said their homeowners are unfairly taxed to pay for infrastructure demanded by new suburbs while they see a dramatic reduction in the existing services they get from city hall.

Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) she supports the imposition of growth fees.

“You just have to come down to my community and see,” Gilroy said. “I’m the perfect example, how if you don’t grow a city properly and if we don’t put in the proper infrastructure and the maintenance of it, of what can happen. I believe growth fees can be a great mechanism to help grow our city.”

The timing of the meeting has raised some questions – councillors are still on their summer break and some won’t be able to attend. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) is out of town but will participate in a telephone conference call. Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) has prior commitments and won’t be able to attend. Gilroy said it’s unlikely she can attend either.

Several councillors are unhappy that they are not getting a copy of the report in advance. While a member of the Hemson consulting team will present the report and answer questions, councillors said they won’t have had time to properly study the report.

Bowman said the report will be released publicly following the Thursday morning briefing.

Some councillors, like Transcona’s Russ Wyatt and Lukes, feel the process is being rushed. Wyatt, who opposes the proposed fees, said the process is being stage-managed by Bowman so he can have the new fees included in the 2017 budget.

Lukes said the city hasn’t done enough to meet with the local development industry. When Calgary introduced its development fee system earlier this year, she said that community had undergone an extensive consultation process with the development industry but that hasn’t happened here.

Lukes said the development industry met twice with Hemson but only to hear what the consultant had found — not to engage it in a discussion.

“To me, this will become a defining moment in how we move our city forward, probably one of the most important decisions on how we proceed to prepare for growth in this city,” Lukes said. “We shouldn’t be rushing into anything…. I went through five years of consultations on a sidewalk.”

Bowman wouldn’t commit to any further meetings with developers before council deals with the study and issue of whether to impose fees.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca