Mayor Judy Dahl sent a letter on Jan. 15 to Ken Hughes, the provincial minister of municipal affairs, requesting that the town be approved for a community revitalization levy (CRL).
Dahl wrote the letter after town council gave third reading to the uptown area redevelopment plan on Jan. 13. If it's approved, the community revitalization levy will allow the town to direct a portion of any increased assessment on uptown businesses that would result from uptown improvements to pay for those improvements.
It hasn't yet been determined how much of the funds from a CRL would pay for either infrastructure or street-scaping. A town-led committee will decide how to allot any funds towards infrastructure or street-scaping improvements.
ìWe've got to come up with a plan and a budget (for improvements) and then whatever gets approved by Municipal Affairs, the process is that we take out a debenture to fund those improvements and the CRL is part of the revenue to repay the principal and interest payments on the debenture,î said Norm McInnis, the town's chief administrative officer.
He said that if there is no increased assessment as a result of the improvements, no money would flow from the community revitalization program to the town.
ìIf those improvements don't lead to increased assessment, which would lead to increased taxes, then there is no money from the community revitalization levy program, so it's all based on increasing the assessment and increasing the taxes on the properties that are within the plan area,î he said.
Another benefit of the community revitalization levy is it would allow the town to do a baseline count of education tax revenue of the existing uptown properties and any increase in subsequent years would be diverted from provincial coffers to the town for a period of 20 years. In addition, any new assessment that comes on-stream, such as Cam Clark Ford moving its dealership into the uptown core, would also be counted as an assessment the town could capture to pay for improvements.
ìThat's the bigger opportunity here,î McInnis said.
By improving the uptown, McInnis said the hope is that more people will visit the uptown core, leading to more sales and justifying an expected increase in taxes.
ìThe end goal is to increase the value of the properties, but you do that by creating a space where people want to spend time and spend money,î he said.
