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Calgary's sprawl tax: $8,000 per new house

Suburban developers within Calgary city limits will pay significantly more in development levies now that Calgary city council has accepted a negotiated agreement between the city's development community and its bureaucrats.

Suburban developers within Calgary city limits will pay significantly more in development levies now that Calgary city council has accepted a negotiated agreement between the city's development community and its bureaucrats.

Council voted in mid-May to accept a new offsite levy bylaw that will ultimately cost developers about $8,000 more per new home they bring to the market in Calgary's sprawling suburban neighbourhoods.

The bylaw provides for a two-phase implementation scheme for the adjusted levies, with the lower levies applicable to only the first 400 hectares of land under 2011 development agreements. Once that land is tied up with new agreements, sanitary sewer levies will double from $22,178 per hectare to $44,356, and water levies will jump from $12,234 per hectare to $24,469.

The second phase of the implementation scheme also hikes stormwater and transportation levies, but only by an additional 28 per cent.

The bylaw to hike development levies was approved by a 12-2 vote of council, with Mayor Naheed Nenshi voting against the changes, not because of the steep hike in fees but because they still won't recover the full costs of urban growth and infrastructure to accommodate it.

Nenshi campaigned on smarter growth for Calgary in the fall 2010 election, and wants suburban growth to come closer to paying for itself.


from Western Investor July 2011