On Jan. 7, the Rocky View County (RVC) council unanimously referred Community Recreation Off-Site Bylaw C-8550-2024 for amendments, following several motions proposed by council members.
In a conjoined motion that was passed, administration has been instructed to return to council for consideration by the end of the first quarter, or the end of March, at which time council would consider the next steps without further public engagement or hearings.
While council members expressed concern about the project being delayed further without implementation, several suggestions were put forward, and many motions carried further.
Division 5 Coun. Greg Boehike proposed a motion recommending a split between non-residential and residential rates. He suggested that non-residential usage of the recreational facilities should be charged at the base rate.
Another suggestion came from Division 4 Coun. Samanntha Wright, who proposed that MR lands, or municipal reserve lands, should be excluded from the levy.
Division 7 Coun. Al Schule proposed a motion suggesting if the price of levies were to be decreased on commercial end, the loss should be recovered somewhere else.
“I’m still stuck on [Units Per Acre]," SchuIe said. "I do believe UPA is the way to recover it."
He emphasized that the community will be collecting fees on a per-unit basis rather than per acre from those using the recreation facility, meaning more revenue would be generated through this approach.
“I do believe the equation still needs to be balanced at the end of the day,” Division 1 Coun. Kevin Hanson said, should the commercial aspect be removed from the community recreation levy revenue.
“I’d still like to see increased rates for the base,” he added.
This approach would ensure that the investment in the project is balanced with the revenue generated by the facility.
Meanwhile, Division 6 Coun. Sunny Samra offered a different perspective.
“Start with a base levy and do some more work on how to establish other levies; do comprehensive work first,” Samra suggested.
He felt that moving forward with the base levy is far more productive than merely conversing without taking any action, or feeling a sense of urgency regarding the project’s timeline.
With several recommendations put forward for County administration to consider, he said, postponing the decision-making to the end of the meeting would risk rushing the matter.
“[Community Recreation Off-Site Bylaw C-8550-2024] needs to come back at a later date because we’ve [gone] from one to ten things quickly… we need some time,” agreed Division 3 Coun. and Crystal Kissel.
According to RVC manager of Capital and Engineering Services, Jeannette Lee, some amendments were easy to make, such as removing the MR lands from the development area; keeping the non-residential usage of the facilities at base rate only similar to ensuring that the net zero effect based on the non-residential component is still present as it still aligns with the baseline framework of the levy, and lastly, ensuring that the base levy does go up.
One of the major amendments that falls outside the levy’s framework is the UPA.
“It will take substantial time to change,” Lee said.
During the public hearing, there were five submissions opposing the bylaw, with none in support of the application submitted.
One submitter, Joe Tompalski, a representative of Overland Container Transportation Services (OCTS), raised significant concerns before the council regarding the new tariff the company is required to pay for the community recreation levy.
OCTS, a trucking company planning to relocate from Calgary to RVC.
“This levy is asking us to contribute $20,000 short of 1.1 million towards community recreation… ultimate facilities, I guess,” Tompalski said. “One that’s planned for Conrich is in planning for ten years from now in 2034. We recognize the need for it; we recognize the need for some form of contribution. Proportionality is our concern. It just seems significantly excessive.”
As part of their development in RVC, the company is already required to build landscaped areas, pathways, et cetera, near their development.
Therefore, “the requirement to pay the 1.1 million to build the community recreation levy seems unfair,” Tompalski stated.
The first reading of the Community Recreation Off-Site Levy Bylaw took place on Jul. 23, 2024. Since then, a consultation process has been carried out with relevant stakeholders, along with a legal review to ensure compliance with the Municipal Government Act and the Off-Site Levies Regulation.
A soft services levy framework was also completed, which included a detailed comparison analysis. Five new facilities were identified under the Recreation and Parks Master Plan over the next 20 years. These five new facilities are the twinned ice Rink in Indus, Phase One Community Centre in South Springbank, Recreation Centre and Fieldhouse in Langdon, and Community centres in Harmony and Conrich.
The estimated future capital construction costs for the five recreation facilities are approximately $99 million.
The proposed bylaw establishes a framework that applies a base off-site levy charge across the County, along with catchment-specific off-site levy charges for developments within the primary benefiting areas of the planned facilities. The proposed levy rate for the entire County Area would be $1,162 per acre, or a regional approach would see the Eastern Catchment pay $6,076 per acre, and Western Catchment is $2,887 per acre, depending on the decision of RVC council.
These levies would all be applied to future growth not current residents or businesses. To learn more about off-site soft levies, visit their website.
Administration recommended that the effective enactment date of the bylaw be Apr. 30, to allow sufficient time for the transition of files currently in the queue for implementing procedural updates.
Other levy changes approved
In other planning and development projects, council approved the amended Bylaw C-8547-2024, otherwise known as the Regional Stormwater Off-Site Levy Bylaw.
It aimed to revise the current Regional Stormwater Off-Site Levy Bylaw C-8008-2020. The updates include adjustments to schedules based on levies collected since the previous bylaw, infrastructure expansion costs, inflation accommodations, and the addition of new schedules to account for internal infrastructure supporting the Janet, Langdon, and Conrich areas.
Bylaw C-8547-2024 will come into effect on April 30, 2025.
The council also voted to approve amended Bylaw C-8548-2024 intended to amend Regional Water and Wastewater Off-Site Levy Bylaw C-8009-2020.
Bylaw C-8548-2024 will be effective April 30, 2025.