City Council in Brief - March 2021

In brief, this post highlights five items of public interest that were discussed during the March 2021 City Council meeting. 

Highlights include:

• information on the amendments to the Brighton Concept Plan. 
• welcoming the new City Clerk, Adam Tittemore. 
• confirmation of the municipal tax policy, including a detailed analysis on best practices. 
• approval in principle of the Urban Forest Management Plan.
• update on leaves of absences and supports for member of City Council.

Other items that were discussed during the meeting include:

• consideration of property tax and utility deferrals for hotel partners;
• information on Swale Education, Communications and Partnerships,
• Flood Control Strategy update (Churchill Park);
• the Transportation Master Plan; and
• Updates to Loading Zone Policy.

The full agenda for March 22, 2021 can be accessed here.

Please note that in line with the City of Saskatoon’s request for citizens to assist with controlling the spread of COVID-19 we encourage you to email a letter at saskatoon.ca providing comments or requesting to speak as an alternative to attending the meeting. This meeting of City Council took place through teleconference and was recorded, as per any other City Council meeting.

Furthermore, Internet Explorer will no longer work to view agendas. Please use another internet browser. 

Amendment to Brighton Concept Plan

Dream Developments and BDM Enterprises submitted an application to amend the Brighton Neighbourhood Concept Plan. The proposed amendments consist of minor land use changes and the reconfiguration of streets, linear parks, development sites and service networks located primarily in the western and southern portions of the neighbourhood.

By way of background. the Brighton Neighbourhood Concept Plan (Concept Plan) was originally approved by City Council in May 2014. Since 2014, other amendments have been approved to facilitate minor changes in land uses and parcel layout.

Details of the proposal can be found at saskatoon.ca/engage/brighton-concept-plan-amendment. They include:

• Amendment Area 1:
  • Reconfiguration of streets and development sites; and
  • Realignment of the linear parks.
• Amendment Area 2:
  • Reconfiguration of streets and development sites;
  • Realignment of the linear parks; and
  • Replace three ‘Low-Density Group Townhouse Multi-Unit Dwellings’ sites with ‘Single Unit/Semi-Unit Detached Dwellings’ sites.
• Amendment Area 3:
  • Reconfiguration of streets and development sites;
  • Realignment of the linear park; and
  • Replace a ‘Low-Density Group Townhouse Multi-Unit Dwellings’ site with ‘Single
    Unit/Semi-Unit Detached Dwellings’ sites.
• Amendment Area 4:
  • Reconfiguration of streets. 
• Amendment Area 5:
  • Reconfigure and increase the area of the ‘Low-Density Group Townhouse Multi-
    Unit Dwellings’ site. 
• Amendment Area 6:
  • Addition of a six metre lane to create two ‘Low Density Multi-Unit Dwellings’
    development sites from the existing site.
• Amendment Area 7:
  • Amend the land use from ‘Low Density Group Townhouse Multi-Unit Dwellings‘
    to ‘Medium Density Multi-Unit Dwellings’.
• Amendment Area 8:
  • Revise the Concept Plan Land Use Legend from a previous amendment for
    consistency on mapping for the neighbourhood.

The policy review highlighted the following changes:

• The estimated population is projected to decrease slightly from approximately 15,490 people to approximately 15,167 people.
• The amendments deviated from the fused grid pattern which was identified as a key objective of the neighbourhood design in the original Concept Plan document submitted by the Developer and approved by City Council in 2014. The amendments propose to add several cul-de-sacs, which are no longer integrated into a larger pedestrian network and are not connected through green spaces, two of the defining core principles of a fused grid pattern. As such, the plan has been amended to read that the plan is "inspired by fused grid".
• The proposed amendments were evaluated to ensure the connectivity for non-vehicular modes of transportation were maintained. Information provided in support of the application indicates that proposed amendments ensure safe street crossings, maintains the internal circulation route along a linear park system and street network and provides for additional connection points to the multi-use trail adjacent to the CPR berm.

In December 2020, a notice was sent to registered property owners within approximately 150 metres of the subject sites. Details of the application, along with the amendment process were also posted on the City’s Engage Page. Information on engagement was also posted at wardeight.ca and on Facebook.

Municipal Tax Policy

City Council voted to maintain the current non-residential to residential tax ratio of
1.59 to 1 effective for the 2021 tax year and beyond.

The agenda provides a very detailed report on municipal tax policy. This item can be found as agenda item 8.2.5.

The City uses property tax revenues to generally fund a variety of public services that are said to largely benefit the community as whole: police services, fire services, and road maintenance to name a few. Unless otherwise exempt by legislation, every person or organization that owns property in the city directly pays property taxes to help for these programs and services.

The City distributes the property tax burden among different property classes by using a tax ratio approach that pegs the tax rate for non-residential properties at some point higher than residential properties. This ratio is set at 1.59:1. As noted in the report, the City first adopted this approach in 1998 and has maintained it ever since. The original intent of the City’s property tax ratio policy was to achieve (horizontal) equity among residential and non-residential properties of similar assessed values. This was achieved by estimating the amount of property taxes that a business could deduct for income tax purposes. Canada’s Income Tax Act allows businesses to deduct property taxes as an expense for the purposes of filing their corporate income tax (CIT) returns each year.

Saskatoon's ratio is one of the lowest in Canada and is also well below the prairie city average of 2.15.

General information on taxation can be found at saskatoon.ca/services-residents/property-tax-assessment.

Urban Forestry Management Plan