Jasper considers increasing off-site levies; chamber of commerce raises concerns
CBC
If Jasper doesn't collect more money through development fees, the Alberta community might have to raise taxes in the future to pay for rising infrastructure costs, according to municipal officials.
If council passes a proposed bylaw amendment to increase off-site levies, the fee the municipality collects to help maintain and upgrade infrastructure will more than double in some cases.
In other scenarios, those who are expanding residential floor space might actually save money.
The pressure to update the municipality’s bylaw from 2015 didn’t exist before wildfires in 2024 destroyed 374 properties in Jasper — about a third of the townsite.
Bill Given, chief administration officer for the Municipality of Jasper, said the damage done by the wildfires has created more potential for infill growth.
He said if the municipality doesn't collect enough money from growth through off-site levies, “the property tax burden for everyone in Jasper will be higher in the future.”
If adopted, proposed amendments would not affect residents rebuilding what they lost in the wildfires.
At a council meeting on Tuesday, administration will recommend council schedule first reading of the proposed bylaw, and set a public hearing for March 17 to get community feedback.
Off-site levies are imposed when residents, developers or business owners build additional units or add more floor space to a property.
In Jasper, those fees go towards expanding the municipality’s capacity for water, wastewater and stormwater facilities in the future.
Eran Kaplinsky, a professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in property law, said off-site levies have a dual role.
“They protect existing residents from the costs of growth, … and then they also charge those costs to the people who benefit from them,” he said.
Right now, commercial expansion costs $2.57 per square foot in off-site levies, while industrial expansion is $1.27 per square foot. The proposed bylaw amendment combines those categories and changes the fee to $5.53 per square foot of gross floor space for non-residential development.
Although off-site levies apply to both residential and commercial growth, Given said in Jasper’s case it’s only relevant to residential growth.
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