Council Notes
Drumheller Town Council
Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, October 22, 2018
Council opened the meeting with a discussion of offsite levies, which are fees developers pay to the town to help cover off-site infrastructure costs. CAO Darryl Drohomerski said the town hired a consultant in 2016 to review the existing offsite levy bylaw, with work completed in 2017. In the coming weeks a reading of the existing bylaw will be scheduled at a council meeting to start the process to review and potentially make changes to the bylaw if needed. A public hearing will be scheduled too. Councillor Tom Zariski said communities without offsite levies may be looked upon more favourably by developers and because development in Drumheller is somewhat slow, perhaps they should look at reducing it. CAO Drohomerski said the only community of similar size to no charge offsite levies is Hanna, but they use a different process to collect funds for infrastructure costs. Deputy Mayor Jay Garbutt asked if offsite levies collected could be used to fund projects outside water and wastewater, and CAO Drohomerski said the new MGA has allowed funds to be alloted to recreational projects. Mr. Garbutt said the discussion will be lively because council often struggles with who should pay for certain costs which arise.
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Council heard a report from Greg Peters, director of protective services, regarding possible locations for a dog park, which is hoped to be created in spring next year. One new location brought to council is a section near Newcastle Beach. Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk asked if there is a cost estimate for installing water services, and Mr. Peters said not yet. Councillor Hansen-Zacharuk raised concern over the location being in the floodplain. Councillor Garbutt said this location is the closest to any residence out of the other proposed locations and asked if any decibel testing should be done. CAO Drohomerski said there is possibly a better location at the east end of the Newcastle campground which is further away from houses. Councillor Hansen-Zacharuk said she would hope the dog park would not impede further development of the ball diamonds there. Councillor Zariski said since the park would be closed in late evenings the noise may not be an issue, but councillor Garbutt said noise during the day would be considered a nuisance to nearby residents.
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Council moved to in camera discussion over labour and land matters.
