Town Considerations …

Town Considerations

Currently, the Town’s Parkland Dedication Procedure outlines the type of lands that are acceptable to the Town and details the procedural elements of accepting land or payment-in-lieu of land under Parkland Dedication By-law 2024-034.

The list of ineligible land in the proposal is in line with the land identified as not acceptable in the Town’s Parkland Dedication Procedure. The requirement of providing credit at a rate of 0.7 though, will have a negative impact on the Town’s ability to achieve the desired parkland system. 

Encumbered land in the form of Strata arrangements, Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) and constrained land is currently acceptable to the Town. However, the land area is required to be appropriately discounted for a variety of reasons, including in the case of:

Strata ownership arrangements: the land area is discounted in recognition of lifecycle cost issues, including maintenance and landscape replacement that are typically at a higher cost, and over a shorter time frame, than fee simple land.

POPS arrangements: the land area is discounted in recognition of the Town’s lack of programming control and the long-term viability of the POPS space with respect to the evolving commitment of the affected landowner, or condominium board.

Constrained lands: where constrained lands are accepted (i.e. lands with steep slopes, utility corridors, stormwater management facilities), the land area is substantially discounted in recognition of the associated constraints of the land to accommodate recreational opportunities.

Providing credit in amounts that exceed the true value of the encumbered land will result in challenges in achieving the Town’s parkland system, and be financially constraining to municipalities. Receiving land is integral in providing the targeted amount of parkland and supporting complete communities.

Comments to Province

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach when discounting encumbered land, as the reasons for discounting the land can vary on a case-by-case basis. The minimum credit should be reduced to 0.5 with the ability to provide additional credit to ensure that the credit given can more closely match the value being received. This will mitigate the potential impact on the ability of municipal parkland systems to achieve the appropriate mix of part typologies and reduce the volume of appeals to the OLT on this issue.