Invest Langley City is our community’s vision for infrastructure projects, including water, sewer, transportation, parks, public safety, and recreation facilities to meet the needs of residents and businesses over the coming decades. There are two key projects that the City is seeking voter feedback on during the upcoming fall municipal election: an expanded Timms Community Centre with a Performing Arts Centre and an expanded Al Anderson Memorial Pool.
Over the coming months, the City will be doing all it can to reach out to residents and businesses in our community to provide information about the benefits and impacts, including costs, associated with these projects, and to seek community feedback in preparation for the fall municipal election. I previously posted about some upcoming in-person and online open house events.
Last week, Council received an information package about the proposed Timms Community Centre with a Performing Arts Centre and expanded Al Anderson Memorial Pool.
An expanded Al Anderson will include a new building for an indoor leisure pool, hot tub, steam room, and sauna, and will change the operation of the existing outdoor pool from seasonal to year-round. The expanded facility will cost about $71.7 million to build. If approved, including construction and ongoing operating costs, it will increase the average annual property tax for a detached home by $357 and for an attached home (townhouse/apartment) by $151.49.
An expanded Timms Community Centre with a Performing Arts Centre will include a new half-gymnasium, over a half-dozen new multi-purpose rooms, including spaces for fitness and arts programming, a new 500-seat theatre, and a smaller black box studio. The facility will also have commercial retail units fronting Fraser Highway. The expanded facility will cost about $107 million to build. If approved, including construction and ongoing operating costs, it will increase the average annual property tax for a detached home by $618.24 and for an attached home (townhouse/apartment) by $262.11.
These projects would likely need to be funded by a loan. Municipalities in BC have a maximum debt ceiling, determined by total debt service costs. The following graph shows that if both projects were built 100% with a loan, the City would still be well below its maximum debt ceiling.
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| Graph showing the maximum debt service limit and debt service cost for the proposed aquatics and Timms Community Centre with Art Centre expansions. Select the graph to enlarge. |
My hope is that in the fall municipal election, people will feel that they have all the information they need to make an informed choice on whether they want to move forward with both, one, or none of these projects.
3 comments:
Love the direction the city is going, we know citizens support both projects and I look forward to the final result.
The increases to property tax are separate from the normal annual increase?
Not sure we are in a climate to talk about $1000 increases annually for taxes
If this is what voters want, it would be spread out over 5 to 10 years.
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