The mayor of Kamloops is hoping developers “get on with” connecting local roads between Aberdeen and Pineview Valley.
Ken Christian commented on the issue before council approved updates to development cost charges, where the city will continue to provide an “assist factor” to cover up to 10 per cent of the cost for developers in relation to roads, which includes building new ones.
“That lack of road network really means that our Hall 7 with (Kamloops Fire Rescue) is limited, in terms of its reach. It means that the School District has overcrowding in one area and bussing challenges because of limited access to Dufferin Elementary School and Pacific Way Elementary School,” Christian says.
“It means that the growth of Aberdeen and Pineview is somewhat independent as opposed to being contiguous. It’s, I guess, a concession from my perspective, that if the 10 per cent factor were to remain, my expectation would be that the developers operating in that corridor would get on with that connection, I think, for the benefit of the city.”
Developers are responsible to cover the entire costs of new roads in subdivisions.
The “assist factor” on transportation from the city covers up to 10 per cent of costs to upgrade roads or build new roads, aside from new roads in subdivisions. Staff expect the city will need to budget just over $3 million in the next 10 years to cover the costs of that assist factor.
The city’s updated Official Community Plan – KamPlan – also calls for 43 per cent of growth in Kamloops to happen in the city’s southwest sector between now and 2040.
With an update to its development cost charges bylaw, developers will have to pay $11,673 in DCCs to the city for the average new home built, which is 1.75 per cent of the average new-home price ($665,298).
Director of development services Marvin Kwiatkowski says that percentage is much lower than the last DCC bylaw update three years ago; in 2017 developers paid $11,245 (2.4 per cent) to the city to build a new single-family home, which, then, cost $473,000 on average.
