Town of Sundre officials are considering implementing a new tax on people who develop vacant, unsubdivided land within town limits, to help pay for future community and recreational facilities.
There has already been an estimated $23 million worth or proposed projects - a $15 million arena and an $8 million sports complex ñ identified to be partially bankrolled through the tax.
ìWe already have an offsite levy bylaw now but we're updating it to reflect future infrastructure projects so the development will pay for development,î said Erin O'Neill, the town's manager of planning and development.
The proposed tax is between $24,129 and $32,554 per acre ($59,599 and $80,408 per hectare) depending on which area of town the land is in.
An open house was held at the town office on Feb. 19 to discuss the offsite levy bylaw with members of the development community.
During the open house, town officials discussed issues like historical costs and future costs for community facilities, the impact on community facilities and quality of life, grants and other funding available for community facilities, and estimated net cost of community facility per new resident/household.
O'Neill believes people who attended the open house were satisfied with what is being proposed.
ìThey just wanted to make sure that the levies weren't so high. Basically we need to find a balance between the cost and what the end user will pay,î she said.
Developers would contribute an estimated $5.6 million over time towards the estimated cost of the proposed sports complex and arena through the proposed tax. This is based on developers contributing 24.4 per cent of the estimated costs, while the Town of Sundre would pick up 75.6 per cent of the costs.
ìAnd then that's divided by how many acres are left to be developed. So we took the $5 million and divided it by how many acres are available for development in town to come up with an amount per acre so that we can make that amount of money,î she said.
The facilities are recommendations out of the town's Master Recreation Plan, which was unveiled in 2013, she noted.
ìWhat we did is the town took a certain portion of that and then the developers take a certain portion of that,î she said.
ìSo it worked out to be $5,000 and some change in acre, so that we could put some money aside to reserve for that when we're ready to do those complexes.î
First reading of the bylaw is planned for March 3, followed by a public hearing on April 17 after which second and third readings could be considered, she said.
The last time the bylaw was updated was in 2008.
She said town officials wanted to make sure they were in the market, so they had a report completed to address the following:
Construction costs based on current market conditions
Changes in previously contemplated development patterns
Change in the anticipated rate of growth
To ensure that the adopted offsite levy approach is equitable between present and future developments
To ensure that growth pays for itself
Investigate the mechanism for a public facilities contribution to construct or expand existing facilities categorized into recreation, community and essential services.
