Council accepted Mayor Nenshi's proposal in the budget today to allocate capital funding that would mean that henceforth there will no longer be a direct resident assessment for 50% of sidewalk replacement. City will cover the whole cost.
Council will also be considering in two weeks allocating $10.2 million to reduce the amount of existing city-initiated "Local Improvement" assessments for sidewalk replacement. There is currently approximately $17 million in outstanding payments from existing local improvements. If approved, this will mean that likely anyone that has a current assessment will have their monthly payment be more than halved for the remainder (me included - I have 11 years left on a local improvement.)
Shout out to Ward 9 Alderman Gian-Carlo Carra for initiating the discussion on this policy several months ago. That led to the mayor proposing some availiable funding to address this.
Done.
