The proposed, new Riverstone Outline Plan (City of GP)

By Emily Keller

city council

Changes made to Riverstone Outline Plan to support condominium development; rezoning request rejected

Mar 9, 2020 | 7:58 PM

Changes were requested to the Riverstone Outline Plan at City Council Monday, where a public hearing went on the matter.

A developer is hoping to build a plus 55, gated condominium community, and has asked a small park to be removed from the area but would pay the City back for the value of the land once it is subdivided.

The City said the loss of the park met their Parks Master Plan requirement of having at least one park within walking distance of every home.

City Councillor Dylan Bressey says he initially supported the changes to the outline plan, including the park, but that he could not support the second request from the developer.

“I think it’s a well thought-out design that would be a great place to live, but then there’s another request to change the designation of the residential land so that it could qualify for farm tax rates, and for me, we shouldn’t be playing with land rezoning when it comes to tax policy. We should be using different tax rate bylaws to deal with tax policy.”

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The City estimated the amount of tax generated by the parcel that would be rezoned was $44,000 in 2019, and that the rezoning could save up to $15,000 in taxes. They also noted in the report discussed at Council, that the developer wanted to rezone the land until it is ready for development.

“That land that doesn’t have roads, which isn’t having police in it, which doesn’t have a firetruck, should pay less tax, I think that I’m sympathetic to that argument,” said Bressey. “But then we should use the appropriate tools that the Municipal Government Act gives us to set different tax rates to give tax relief. We shouldn’t be doing it just through rezoning land.”

Council adopted the changed Outline Plan and rescinded the original Riverstone Plan, but the rezoning did not go through.