It took three attempts – back and forth and up and down – but it seems as though City of Cranbrook council is zeroing in on setting assist factors to enable it to increase Development Cost Charges (DCCs).

Council Feb. 20 voted five to one to recommend to city administrative staff to prepare a report and draft bylaw based around DCC assist factors of 51% for roads and storm water and 11% for water and sewer.

Coun. Sharon Cross was the lone voice opposed to the suggested assist factors, while Coun. Denise Pallesen is on vacation and did not vote.

The selected rates were what city staff originally recommended one month previously.

“This is just the start,” pointed out Mayor Wayne Stetski. “There will be public hearings” and people will be able to voice their views on the suggested assist factors, which if approved would bump Cranbrook’s DCCs from an average of $2,032 per single family home being built, to $8,681.

In comparison, for a single family home in the City of Fernie, developers pay $10,742 and in Invermere they pay $9,480.

Council wrestled with the assist factor rates for several reasons, most notably a fear that setting DCCs too high would drive away development and investment in the city.

City engineer Jamie Hodges said it is a bit of a misnomer that high DCCs deter developers’ interest in a given town.

“High DCCs in and of themselves do not discourage development from occurring,” he said, noting several studies bear that out. “They tend, indeed, attract development.”

City chief administrative officer Will Pearce informed council that if they are not happy with the DCC rate, which must be approved by the provincial government, they can revisit the matter the following year.

“You can change your assist factor from year to year, if that’s what you want to do,” he said.

Stetski noted the proposed assist factors, while providing more infrastructure coverage for the city than ever before, still doesn’t completely cover all costs.

“The concept here is if you want a developer to pay for everything – it’s a one per cent assist factor,” which would have to be approved, he said.

Cross said she would like to the DCCs a little higher than proposed.

“I’m not comfortable with the taxpayer carrying a 51% subsidy,” she said, adding she’d prefer to see an “all around” assist factor of 11%.

Coun. Bob Whetham also noted he isn’t keen about the 51% assist factor for roads and storm water, but “I also don’t feel comfortable” making rates higher than anywhere else in the region. He also noted the rates could be changed in the future.

Coun. Diana J Scott said she agreed with the suggested assist factors.

“We need to encourage development and industry. I definitely don’t want to go too low,” she said, pointing out that Cranbrook is different to other towns in the region.

“Cranbrook is a business centre – it’s a regional hub,” she said, and not a place where people buy second homes, like Invermere, Radium Hot Springs, Fernie or Kimberley. Therefore it doesn’t face the same development pressures on infrastructure that the resort municipalities contend with, she said.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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