The Westcoast Native Health Care Society has asked the City of Port Alberni to waive or reduce some city-related fees regarding their Rainbow Gardens expansion. Those fees could total $148,000.
The society is finalizing their plans for a 20-unit affordable housing plan for seniors and 10 units of complex care. Based on the two projects, director of development services Scott Smith brought forward a summary of the development fees to council on Monday.
Building permit fees would be about $7,950 for the 20 units and about $3,570 for the 10 units.
“Council can waive these building permit fees if they wish, by resolution,” said Smith. “This would be a loss of revenue but there wouldn’t be a cost coming to the city.”
There will also be costs for sewer and water connections. The preliminary estimate for both projects is around $20,000.
Council can also waive these city service connection fees, but there will be a cost to provide the connection services, which will lead to an impact on the public works operations budget.
The last and the largest cost is the city’s development cost charges, which would be around $95,000 for the 20 units and around $21,000 for the 10 units.
“For most projects, council cannot waive or reduce development cost charges,” said Smith. “There is a section in the Local Government Act that does allow council to waive or reduce DCC charges for certain eligible developments.”
These categories include not-for-profit rental housing, including supportive living housing, and for-profit affordable rental housing. Representatives from Westcoast Native Health Care Society have said Rainbow Gardens will be completely not-for-profit.
Council can only waive these fees in accordance with a bylaw. “If council did adopt such a bylaw,” said Smith, “it would apply to all future projects that qualified under what that bylaw would mean.”
Development cost charges are fees that the city charges to new developments that help to offset infrastructure costs and help to lower the cost for general taxpayers.
Councillors were torn on how to proceed with this request.
“It’s difficult because you want to support our non-profits that are providing seniors care,” said Councillor Chris Alemany. “But the difficulty is that taxpayers are burdened with very significant costs as far as infrastructure. I wouldn’t want to set that kind of a precedent.”
Councillor Denis Sauvé agreed, “We have many non-profit organizations in this community and we have many of them that would like to expand. I think we should tread carefully on how we handle the taxpayers’ money.”
Mayor Mike Ruttan said that Rainbow Gardens is a project that is of “huge importance” to the community. “It’s one that is well-worth supporting as a council,” he said.
“I think either we’re going to support seniors’ housing or we don’t,” agreed Councillor Dan Washington. “I think we need to support this somehow.”
Rather than make a decision on the request, council asked staff to prepare a report looking at some comparative municipalities. The report will also include a rough draft of a rate reduction bylaw. The decisions regarding the building permit fees and the city service connection fees will be made at the same time as the development cost fees.
“I think either we’re going to support seniors’ housing or we don’t,” agreed Councillor Dan Washington. “I think we need to support this somehow.”
Rather than make a decision on the request, council asked staff to prepare a report looking at some comparative municipalities. The report will also include a rough draft of a rate reduction bylaw. The decisions regarding the building permit fees and the city service connection fees will be made at the same time as the development cost fees.