While Airdrie City council voted unanimously on Sept. 6 to move forward with a new vision for the city’s downtown, councillors don't unanimously agree on the details as to how that revitalization should be achieved.
At their last meeting, council ended up passing Bylaw B-01/2022, the Core Strategy for Downtown Revitalization.
The core strategy acknowledges that, “Airdrie’s Economic Strategy 2018 – 2028 describes Airdrie as a market of untapped potential, perhaps nowhere more so than in its downtown.
“In the past quarter-century, the primary development successes in the downtown have only been in the form of new construction on vacant sites along 1 Avenue and 8 Street until the replacement of a service station in 2020, no demolition for the purposes of reconstruction occurred,” the strategy reads.
While there was broad agreement from council that something must be done to kick-start growth and investment in Airdrie’s downtown, a series of staff-recommended resolutions as to how to achieve that aim using grants and other incentives was met with more of a lukewarm response from some councillors.
Of the seven resolutions presented at the Sept. 6 meeting, one included a significant subsidy for developers who would be willing to build multi-storey parkades downtown. According to documents provided by City staff, “The rate of payment for this subsidy is intended to be equal to the value of municipal tax revenue from the first 10 years after construction completion, as estimated by the Assessment Services Team Leader.”
A second grant resolution put before council, the “Insurance and Furniture” grant, would provide grants for businesses in the downtown core who want to “enhance public interaction within municipal road rights-of-way in all possible seasons.” This would include certain types of property beautification initiatives and outdoor furniture such as potential seasonal patio areas for some types of businesses.
A third grant resolution proposed the setting up of a “Business Support Fund” by the City of Airdrie. According to staff reports in the Sept. 6 agenda, “The purpose of the ‘Downtown Business/Organization Support Fund’ is to provide funds for businesses that want to take actions, or organize to take actions, to improve, enhance, beautify, and revitalize the downtown in ways not identified by other council resolutions.”
A fourth grant resolution identified the need to set up a mixed use and housing refund policy. The purpose of this grant, according to City staff, is to, “provide financial incentives for developments that achieve the combined aims of increasing assessment value and providing supportive or below-market rental housing in the downtown.”
A fifth grant resolution set up a fund to help pay for the cost of Environmental Site Assessments so new businesses wanting to redevelop sites in the downtown would not have to pay those costs on their own.
A sixth grant resolution, entitled, “Balancing Social and Economic Supports on Main Street in the Downtown Core,” intended to help “ set out council’s direction for the future aspirational design of Main Street between Centre Avenue and First Avenue.”
And finally, the seventh grant resolution contemplated at the council meeting was intended to help expedite the development permit process for new business endeavours in the downtown core.
City council was asked by staff to set aside $2 million from the general operating reserve for all these grant initiatives.
Council questions
While there was widespread support for providing grants for environmental assessments, expediting development permit applications, incentivizing parkade construction, and setting aside grant money for mixed use/housing development refunds, Coun. Al Jones expressed his misgivings about providing grants for the other resolutions brought forth by City staff.
“With each of the four (mentioned above), there is long-term payback to the City through assessment, through amenity, or whatever… how would we justify the street furniture one? How would we get a return on that?” he asked.
“I would agree with you that this would be one that would be more difficult for us to determine from a pure assessment value perspective,” responded Stephen Utz, the director of chief administrative officer’s office. “How do you know if you offered that, for example, that a key restaurant or business was able to stay open in the downtown that not otherwise would have done? That is very difficult to know.”
However, Utz went on to state it is difficult to put a price on what bringing more vibrancy and general activity to the downtown would mean for its revitalization.
“At the end of the day, that is more of an activity-based incentive as opposed to an assessment-based perspective,” he said. “The intent here was a mix of incentives that did both of those things, both improve and increase the amenity and attraction value of our downtown as well as the assessment. Because in many circumstances, one leads to the other.”
Jones went on to express his concern with voting for the establishment of a Business Support Fund which had not yet defined what criteria City staff would use to determine which businesses received grant funding or not.
Mayor Peter Brown also expressed his concern about setting aside $2 million without having better parameters as to how staff would allot the money to potential grant applicants.
“If someone in Lorne (Stevens, director of community infrastructure’s) department or in recreation came forward with a $2 million ask with nothing underneath it explaining where that money is going, we probably wouldn’t approve it,” he said.
“The intent here,” responded Utz, “is for council to, in principle, get behind these resolutions, and then direct us to come back to (Council Budget Committee) who would make that decision to restrict $2 million, or no million dollars, or whatever the case may be to put behind a council strategic priority (like downtown redevelopment).”
Coun. Candice Kolson said she was comfortable supporting the resolutions because they would come back before CBC again before the $2 million would be allocated.
“This has been five years,” she said. “I made the motion for this downtown plan five years ago… and we are still here. This is council’s vision … we are trying to cut red tape and we are trying to break down those barriers to development in the downtown.”
Kolson then moved that council, “adopt all resolutions, and directs staff to seek ratification from CBC to restrict $2 million from the general operating reserve for allocation of funds to applicants of incentives.”
The motion passed by a vote of 5-2, with Mayor Brown and Coun. Jones the only two opposed.
