A new policy is in front of City of Lloydminster council to address issues with the subdivision of land.
The new subdivision policy was presented to council at the Sept. 15 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting.
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The policy will outline conditions for subdivision approval and extensions, including limitations on the number of extensions allowed before a new application.
A subdivision, in this case, is the legal division of land into parcels in which legal titles can be obtained for each parcel.
The city currently doesn’t have a formal written policy regarding the issuance of subdivision approvals and extensions. Historically, the city grants extensions under the same terms and conditions as they were originally approved, honouring the associated costs of development as they were agreed on.
An issue under the current model, as identified by administration, is the collection of offsite levies.
“Additionally, in an absence of an increase in the rate of offsite levies have been honouring the levies placed on the date of the original subdivision approval,” said Terry Burton, the city’s director of planning and engineering. “Offsite levies are funds that we gather from our developers to help assist with the building of infrastructure to support that growth.
“Not collecting enough levies, thus, doesn’t support the cost that we see in today’s world.”
According to administration, it’s in the best interest to establish a policy that outlines the process pertaining to subdivision application and approval and setting parameters on the extension of approvals.
Don Stang, executive manager of operations, says levy rates should be applied when development moves forward.
“If a developer subdivides, plans to subdivide their parcel today and locks in the offsite levy rates of today, but then delays the actual development of that property for an extended period of time, then technically, the city should be applying the rates at the time,” he said.
“This policy is to clean that process up. If you are going to subdivide and you are going to move forward with development, if you don’t move forward with development in a period of time, we will require you to reapply for that application and we will charge you the fees of the day.”
Offsite levies are governed through the development agreement and permits have to be reapplied for every year.
Prior to this being presented to council, administration circulated the draft policy to developers and internal and external stakeholders for feedback and comments. Those comments were taken into consideration when writing the subdivision policy.
This item is expected to return to a future council meeting.
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