Quesnel City Council has given first reading to an updated bylaw.
The original, adopted in 2016, provided 100 percent relief from Development Cost Charges and property tax relief on the municipal portion of their bill to two areas in the city, downtown and in West Quesnel.
The proposed changes include expanding that area.
Tanya Turner is the Director of Development Services…
“We’re also expanding areas where incentives are permitted to include the area around the college and vacant lands in Carson subdivision.”
Another possible change is that the tax exemption, which was five years for West Quesnel and ten for the downtown core, will now be ten for all approved areas.
Turner says these incentives are also available for renovations of existing buildings as long as they create new units and have a minimum construction value of 300 thousand dollars…
“That’s important because there is a lot of building as well in the community that may be looked at for conversion to some multi-unit residential units in some of our larger commercial buildings in the community as well.”
The municipal tax exemption on those types of projects would only be on the portion that was expanded.
Two apartment buildings were constructed utilizing these incentives under the old bylaw, both downtown.
The 38 unit Kikiknaw building is located on McLean Street, and the 30 unit Silver Manor was built on McNaughton Avenue.
Mayor Bob Simpson noted that these types of incentives were needed in order to attract these types of investments…
“We have a huge issue getting over the construction cost and the return on investment for money that can go anywhere in the province, so that is what we’re trying to address.”
Council unanimously approved first reading on the new bylaw at last night’s meeting.
The bylaw, if approved, would be for four years and at that time Council would once again review it.