To the editor:
On August 10, Kelowna city council approved public subsidies for two rental apartment projects on Dickson Avenue and Ethyl Street. The subsidies included incentives to build 114 new rental units, 10-year tax exemptions and Developer Cost Charge fee exemptions needed for roads, parks, sewers and water services. The cost to taxpayers to subsidize the projects is valued at $642,684.
Surprisingly, the subsidy value increased 45 per cent after public hearings were held on the initial rezoning applications in February and March of 2015. The initial amount was $442,840 but five months later the subsidy increased a whopping $200,000.
Why did city staff withhold the full value of these subsidies from council at the public hearing? These were controversial projects proposing new forms of housing called micro suites, which have floor areas less than 360 sq ft. I would like to think council would not have approved the rezoning had they known the full cost to taxpayers. I would also like to think taxpayers would have spoken out against the projects at the public hearing had the subsidy values been made public.
Without being too critical of the new councilors, these two projects came forward during their first three months in office. However, experienced councilors should have known better. Council minutes show no one questioned the need or value of the subsidies and no one suggested alternative options to create rental housing that council has at its disposal.
Equally surprising, staff reports to council on these two projects failed to include statements or cost benefit analysis from the finance department stating that the city’s 20-Year Servicing Plan and Financial Strategy would not be impacted by these projects and their subsidies.
Council’s decisions to subsidize private sector micro suite projects without knowing the true public costs siphons money away from public projects and delays their completion and waterfront parks, like Cedar Avenue Park, will never get built.
Richard Drinnan, Kelowna
