Update

A lot has happened since our last update.  We want to highlight a few of these:

• Council shuffles responsibilities

• Soft service levies for new fire halls and recreation facilities coming soon –County Hall open house – Thursday, November 2^nd

• Conrich ASP – amendments to provide land uses and permit development in the former “future planning area”– November 5^th deadline for input and survey responses

• Springbank ASP – new commercial demand analysis concludes no additional non-residential land required – draft ASP returns to Council’s Governance Committee on November 21^st

Council Shuffles Responsibilities

At the beginning of Council’s October 17^th organization meeting, Reeve Kissel emphasized that council wanted to re-examine committee appointments to ensure that their workload was better balanced. This seemed like a reasonable decision as a quick scan showed a considerable variation in allocated responsibilities with Councillors Kochan and Schule serving on 6 and 8 committees respectively while Deputy Reeve Samra and Councillor Boehlke were serving on 13 and 15 committees respectively. However, it is questionable whether the allocation of responsibilities that emerged from the organization meeting actually achieved this objective.  Instead, there appears to have been a consolidation of key responsibilities.

Kissel was re-elected as Reeve after being nominated by Councillor Kochan. Councillor Kochan was also nominated for the position by Councillor Hanson but declined on the rationale that he wanted to continue to devote more of his time to issues in his division.

Upon being nominated by Councillor Schule, Kochan was then elected as Deputy Reeve replacing Councillor Samra, who had also been nominated for the position by Councillor Wright.

Reeve Kissel introduced amendments to the agenda to shorten the terms for the council positions on the Rocky View Foundation and Springbank Park for All Seasons so that new appointments could be made.  When these appointments came up, Hanson stated that, contrary to suggestions made by others, he had not indicated an interest in stepping down from any of the committees or boards he had sat on.

Despite Hanson being nominated for the Springbank Park for All Seasons and the Subdivision and Appeal Board, both positions went to Kochan. Hanson was also replaced by Boehlke on the Rocky View Foundation and by Kissel on the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board and Cochrane Spray Lakes Rec Centre Board.

Other key changes include Kochan replacing Samra on the Agricultural Services Board and as the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board alternate.  Despite his already low board commitment, Schule did not seek renomination for the Family and Community Support Services Board. While council definitely redistributed its responsibilities, its not clear how this achieved the stated objective of balancing the workload since Boehlke will now serve on 16 committees / boards while Schule and Hanson will serve on 7. 

Soft Services Off-Site Levies –County Hall Open House – Thurs. Nov. 2^nd

Rocky View has had off-site levies for “hard” services – transportation, water/wastewater infrastructure, stormwater infrastructure – for years.  In 2018, the province expanded municipalities’ powers so that they could also charge off-site levies to finance “soft services” such as fire halls, recreation facilities, and libraries. 

The logic behind soft service off-site levies is admirable as demand for “soft services” increases with growth and levies provide a vehicle to have development pay for the costs arising from that growth.  The levies will be structured comparably to the existing off-site levies in that they will be payable on subdivision of property, with similar exceptions.

Council has been looking to bring forward options for introducing soft service off-site levies for a number of years.  Administration has identified five new fire halls and five new recreation facilities – based on recommendations included in the respective Master Plans – and are now engaging stakeholders to get feedback on alternative structures for the proposed levies.  Details can be found here.

We strongly support having new development contribute to the cost of facilities like new recreation facilities and fire halls.  However, we have concerns with the current proposal.  We are hopeful that our concerns will be alleviated as more details become available.

Our major concern is that the proposed levies assume that over the next ten years Rocky View will build all five new fire halls (total cost $38.6 million) and five new recreation facilities (total cost $144.1 million).  Depending on which levy structure is chosen, new development will pay between 11% and 23% of the total – with the remainder covered by other municipal revenue sources (i.e., property taxes) or by grants to the extent those are available.  There is no doubt, constructing all these facilities will have an impact on property taxes, it also needs to be made clear that this does not include the ongoing operating costs for these facilities.

There is no question that Rocky View will need new fire halls and new recreation facilities over time as our population grows.  It would also clearly be beneficial to have new development pay a share of the associated costs.  However, before we can support this initiative, it is important to understand how much flexibility is available to future councils once specific facilities and timelines are incorporated into a soft service levy.  Should you have any questions or comments, please attend the County Hall open house on Thursday, November 2^nd at 6PM.

Conrich ASP – Public Input on Amendments to Future Planning Area – Deadline Nov. 5^th

The existing Conrich ASP set aside a significant portion of its land as a Future Planning Area.  Amendments to reevaluate a portion of that land for development, focused on the hamlet residential area, are currently being considered. 

The current schedule will have these amendments presented at a public hearing early in the new year.  Prior to finalizing the ASP amendments, Administration is looking for input either through a survey or written comments – due by November 5^th.  If you were unable to attend the open house earlier this month, there is still an opportunity to provide your input. 

Information about the proposed amendments can be found here and a link for the survey is about halfway down the page.

Springbank ASP – New Commercial Demand Analysis Now Available

During the summer’s public consultations on the revised draft Springbank ASP, staff indicated that an updated commercial demand analysis would be finalized by this fall.  It is now available on the County website here.

The recently completed commercial demand analysis reached a number of key conclusions.  Firstly, that large-scale warehousing was more appropriately located in Balzac and/or Conrich because of better access to transportation infrastructure.  Secondly, that over the next 20 years only +/- 270 additional acres would be needed for future commercial/industrial development beyond what is already approved in Springbank and Harmony.  Lastly, that the Springbank Airport already has plans to develop 300 acres of its land for commercial / industrial uses and that land was likely to attract development prior to land elsewhere in Springbank.

From our perspective, these findings raise serious questions about the proposed 1,120 acre Springbank Airport Employment Area and the Future Development Area on the west side of the ASP (an additional 1120 acres) anticipated for non-residential development).

Furthermore, as part of the soft services levy work, Administration also acquired population growth forecasts by area.  For Springbank, that forecast anticipates 20 new homes will be built each year over the next 20 years.  This is higher than the last few years which has seen a yearly average of 13 – 14 homes being built.  In either case, it is not clear how the higher density open space residential / cluster housing can be rationalized with this level of anticipated growth.

Staff will be reporting back to the Governance Committee at its November 21^st meeting to summarize the feedback received from the community over the summer.  Please consider attending the meeting which will be held at the County Hall starting at 9am on Nov. 21^st – or watching the discussion, which will be livestreamed on the RVC website.