Rocky View County (RVC) will issue a letter to residents of Mountain Ridge Place clarifying the terms of a local improvement that saw a waterline installed in 2006.
“I think it’s time to update something, so everybody can understand how we can move forward positively,” Area Coun. Crystal Kissel said. “It seems to be quite a bone of contention in the neighbourhood.”
During a regular meeting Nov. 26, administration responded to an Oct. 22 notice of motion by Kissel directing administration to prepare amendments to a bylaw related to the Mountain Ridge Place waterline that would ensure cost recovery to the residents who initiated the improvements.
According to administration’s report, the borrowing bylaw “was used to secure fixed-term financing through Alberta Capital Finance to fund a local improvement, and therefore it cannot be amended.” However, the Municipal Government Act (MGA) includes provisions that achieve the intent of the notice of motion, according to executive director of Corporate Services Kent Robinson, and those provisions have already been used by RVC to reduce the original local improvement tax.
Robinson provided background on the project, which saw the installation of a waterline to serve properties in Mountain Ridge Place in 2006, following a petition received by the County.
When the project was initiated, he said, the estimated cost was $700,000 – in April 2005, council authorized a borrowing bylaw in that amount.
“When it came time to actually install the local improvement, the actual estimate had increased to $810,000,” Robinson said.
As a result, RVC offered residents four options – submit a new application to amend the bylaw and increase the borrowing amount, have residents pay the difference, allow the borrowing bylaw to lapse and abandon the project, or request administration seek council’s direction on the matter.
Ultimately, residents decided to pay the difference themselves. In 2008, council approved a bylaw authorizing a local improvement tax on 25 properties for 25 years.
Four years later, the MGA’s provisions were used to reduce the tax after a new connection to the system in 2012.
“How the Act works in that case is, from that point forward, until the balance of the local improvement is done, we recalculate it and those who were the original owners that were in get benefit going forward, and the new property that hooked up to the local improvement pays their fair share,” Robinson said.
He added RVC does not actually own the infrastructure – it belongs to Rocky View Water Co-op, which is supposed to notify the County when a new user ties in.
“There is an obligation for those that hook up to this to actually participate in that original construction cost,” he said. “If they’re gaining benefit from that piece of infrastructure…that was installed and paid for by those first in, they have an obligation to share in that.”
Council voted unanimously to have administration continue enforcing the borrowing bylaw without amendments, and then passed a motion arising directing staff to send a letter to the residents of Mountain Ridge Place to clarify the terms of the local improvement tax.
“The report actually answered a lot of questions that everybody had, which is great,” Kissel said. “Now we have to take that and get the residents that live there to understand exactly how it’s going to work.”
The motion arising was carried 6-3, with Deputy Reeve Al Schule and Couns. Kim McKylor and Jerry Gautreau opposed.
McKylor said she didn’t feel it was the County’s job to detail the terms of the local improvement, wondering if a new clarification would be required each time a new person arrives in the area.
“I think we’re taking responsibility for something that’s really, probably, more in the hands of a real estate lawyer’s hands on a transaction,” she said.
