Council Notes: Pavement, Parking, Zoom Meetings, and Deputy Mayor

Over the last week, I’ve posted about the October 18th Langley City Council meeting. Today will be my last post and will cover some of the administrative agenda items.

With the passing of the new Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw, Council repealed its pavement cut policy as it is now covered in the new bylaw. This policy is related to City requirements for restoring pavement when people dig it up, for example, to install utilities.

Council discussed a motion about tandem parking. The discussion about the motion covered topics around on-site and on-street parking management. City staff will be working on an on-street parking management plan in 2022, and Council will likely be approving a new zoning bylaw that will cover on-site parking in early 2022. As such, Council voted not to proceed with the motion.

Due to the gap between expired provincial emergency measures, which allowed Council meetings to be held electronically (via Zoom), and City Council giving final reading to its new Council Procedure Bylaw, Council held in-person meetings in October. Council voted to go back to electronic meetings until further notice. The electronic format will allow more people to attend council meetings and help enhance health protection as the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us.

Council also rotates the Deputy Mayor position among all Councillors. The Deputy Mayor can fill in for the Mayor if she is absent or ill.

The appointment schedule for the next year is:
November 1st - December 31st, 2021 - Councillor Albrecht
January 1st - February 28th, 2022 - Councillor Pachal
March 1st - April 30th, 2022 - Councillor James
May 1st - June 30th, 2022 - Councillor Storteboom
July 1st - August 31st, 2022 - Councillor Wallace
September 1st - October 31st, 2022 - Councillor Martin

New policy places limits on permissive tax exemptions

One of the ways that municipalities can support non-profit organizations and churches is by giving them a permissive tax exemption. Organizations with permissive tax exemptions do not pay property tax.

In Langley City, we grant permissive tax exemptions in an ad-hoc fashion. Granting a permissive exemption results in a slight tax increase for other property taxpayers. Because of these reasons, Council passed a new permissive tax exemption policy at its last meeting.

This new policy will cap permissive tax exemptions to no more than 1.4% of the City’s total property tax revenue. Once this 1.4% limit is reached, all organizations with permissive tax exemptions will see their exemption scaled back by an equal percentage.

In 2022, the City will grant $423,308 in permissive tax exemptions, which equals about 1.35% of total property tax revenue.

The new policy will also limit permissive tax exemptions to no more than $75,000 per individual property.

The largest permissive tax exemption Council approved for 2022 was $63,795 granted to the Roman Catholic Church.

Organizations will now have to submit a new property tax exemptions application form by July 15th each year to be eligible to receive a tax exemption the following year.

In 2023, the new policy will likely result in a scaling back of permissive tax exemptions, and the Roman Catholic Church may hit the $75,000 limit.

Council Notes: Bylaws Given Final Reading on October 18th

In BC, municipalities usually need to give four readings of a proposed bylaw before it is passed and adopted. For most bylaws, the first, second, and third reading of a bylaw can occur concurrently and at the same meeting. When a bylaw is “read,” Council votes on if it should proceed. The final reading of a bylaw must occur at least one day after its third reading. This buffer acts like a sobber second thought for Council and can be used to back out of a bylaw.

For land-use matters in Langley City, the first and second reading of a bylaw occurs at one meeting, a public hearing where anyone can speak about the bylaw on another, third reading on another day after the public hearing, and final reading at yet another meeting.

Last Monday, Langley City Council gave the final reading to the following bylaws. For more information, please select each item to go to the post where I provide more detail.

• Notice Enforcement Bylaw
• Highway and Traffic Regulation Bylaw Amendment (For Notice Enforcement Bylaw)
• Fees and Charges Bylaw Amendment (For Notice Enforcement Bylaw)
• Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw
• Highway and Traffic Regulation Bylaw Amendment (For Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw)
• Municipal Ticket Information System Amendment Bylaw (For Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw)
• Fees and Charges Bylaw Amendment (For Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw)
• Permissive Tax Exemption Bylaw
• Council Procedure Bylaw

Water and Sewer Rates to See Significant Increases

Two times per year, the Metro Vancouver Regional Districts hosts a Council of Councils meeting. This meeting provides an opportunity for all municipal and Treaty First Nations elected representatives to receive updates and ask questions about the regional district's services.

On Saturday, I attended a Council of Councils meeting.

One of the significant discussion points was the escalating costs for water and sewer services. Two primary factors are driving these escalating costs. The first primary factor is that the federal government requires all sewage treatment facilities to adhere to a higher quality standard for treated water discharged into our rivers and ocean. This requirement means that the regional district is essentially rebuilding all the sewage treatment plants in our region.

The second primary factor is to accommodate the growth in our population, which requires increasing water and sewage treatment capacity.

The following slide shows the typical household impact due to these cost drivers.

Overall household impact. Select image to enlarge.

Water, sewage, and solid water fees from the regional district do not directly show up on your property tax bill. Langley City buys water and sewer services from the regional district. The City embeds those costs into the City's water and sewer rates that you pay.

Your waste hauler, which can be the City or be private, pays the solid waste fee.

The regional district is doubling down on its water conservation efforts to reduce the infrastructure needed to accommodate population growth. These efforts include continuing to charge a higher summer water rate.

The regional district is also looking to charge a wet weather rate for sewage. This rate will nudge municipalities to fix their leaky sewer pipes, which allow rainwater to get into them during the winter. This excess water puts unnecessary strain on the sewage treatment system.

Even with this rate increase, Metro Vancouver's water and sewer utilities prices are comparable to other similar-sized regions in Canada.

The following chart shows a high-level breakdown of the regional district's operating budget over five years.

Operating budget. Select image to enlarge.

The following chart shows the capital budget over the same period.

Capital projects budget. Select image to enlarge.