[Fusebox]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Most people don't even have a clue that developers and builders are not the same thing for the most part, except for a handful of large national real estate conglomerates that are vertically integrated with development, building and some owned-supplier divisions (Brookfield, Qualico, Hopewell, Mattamy). Traditionally and historically, homebuilders were very apolitical in Calgary and had little or nothing to do with municipal politics. They've been forced to become more vocal due to the extreme shortage of serviced lots in the city and due to the oligopolization of the land development industry. Only the largest firms can now afford to purchase raw land in greenfield areas and withstand the enormous financial burden of taking it through 10-20 years of development through to completion. They are the ones doing most of the heaviest lobbying. Builders just want a fair and even playing field.

The divide and conquer platform nature of these elections for Nenshi, Farrel and Carra is now out of control. They are trying to appeal to their core support groups in the inner city by pitching the unfairness of growth cost sharing skewed in favour of suburbs. In reality, it is the inner-city established communities that underpay.

Recently, Town of Okotoks was challenged in court by a small developer on the fairness of the levies assessed on a new subdivision area and the Town lost. I really hope that common sense prevails and our new Council will be more aware of the risks associated with this challenge.

Could you please expand on this? I just can't see how you can say that.