MF YYC Politics - there, I mega did it

[GGG]

That’s an interesting situation.

He’s paying tax on the assessed value, he isn’t asking for the property to be reassessed. It sounds like he wants the province to buy him out which is reasonable. But I suspect he doesn’t want to apply for reassessment because then his payout when it’s eventually expropriated would be less.

On the other hand it does sound like the province / city has destroyed any value from the property by refusing to allow development.

It’s definitely interesting.

[timun]

Yeah, that's a very interesting case. The mayor's correspondence directly with him, and giving an A-OK to city personnel just doing improvement work on the property for free, is problematic. However, the parcel in question sounds like it's essentially worthless, stuck in a never-ending limbo where the owner can't reasonably develop it into anything worthwhile. It begs the question how the city staff assessed the property value; how do you come up with a quintuple increase after the first year, and average annualized increase of 4.85% ever since? The property in essentially an undevelopable patch of grass. It makes no sense.

I'd be pissed if I was the property owner, and at this point would do something like sue the Province or the City and force their hand to buy me out. That said, the mayor can't unilaterally decide to give a taxpayer a refund and authorize City staff to work on private property, that's preposterously inappropriate behaviour from an elected official.

[terryclancy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-emergency-alert.aspx


Just an advisory, though! I've still got a 10 litre jug if you Cochrane folks get desperate.

I always understood that when you’re in the Third World, you should drink the beer as opposed to tap water.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

On the other side Of Calgary, commercial property that used to have an RV Park, is getting substantial help to re-open in 2024...

Apparently, the problem is that some of this assistance was not brought to Council for decision.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ax-refund-100k

Wow, everything in Chestermere sounds gree hee heasie

Lagore noted he’s not convinced the property’s use has been stifled to the point it warrants a tax refund and noted there are processes in place — which Sihota didn’t utilize — when an owner wants to dispute the assessed value of their property.

When your council is already under investigation, how dumb do you have to be to continue to skirt proper protocol?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by timun

Yeah, that's a very interesting case. The mayor's correspondence directly with him, and giving an A-OK to city personnel just doing improvement work on the property for free, is problematic. However, the parcel in question sounds like it's essentially worthless, stuck in a never-ending limbo where the owner can't reasonably develop it into anything worthwhile. It begs the question how the city staff assessed the property value; how do you come up with a quintuple increase after the first year, and average annualized increase of 4.85% ever since? The property in essentially an undevelopable patch of grass. It makes no sense.

I'd be pissed if I was the property owner, and at this point would do something like sue the Province or the City and force their hand to buy me out. That said, the mayor can't unilaterally decide to give a taxpayer a refund and authorize City staff to work on private property, that's preposterously inappropriate behaviour from an elected official.

But he also hasn’t appealed through the normal process to lower the assessed value and is looking to sell other properties instead of this one. So it sounds like he wants a premium buy out. (Which he may be entitled to as really he should get the value of the land without the development impairments)

It’s all fishy though and tvey should be following process.

[bizaro86]

Sounds like AB Transport is in the wrong here to me. If they're not going to let someone use their land then they should buy it now.

It isn't Chestermere council's job to fix that though - other than maybe by advocating on behalf of their citizen with the province.

[gasman]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Hopefully Cochrane gets fined and put through the ringer about their pipeline integrity program as anyone else would with a failed pipeline.

Didn't their contractor drill through the pipe? Hardly an integrity issue and more of a ground disturbance issue.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Sounds like AB Transport is in the wrong here to me. If they're not going to let someone use their land then they should buy it now.

It isn't Chestermere council's job to fix that though - other than maybe by advocating on behalf of their citizen with the province.

They've bought other properties but not his, so I'm sure there's more to the story here.

What I don't get is that the claim is the land is useless, but the city was going to then go ahead and do work on it to allow for developments, even going to connect it to services, which they know would be a waste.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Wild. Good thing they didn't shoot themselves in the foot in the middle of summer or a wildfire could have wiped out the place.



https://globalnews.ca/news/10045708/...-of-emergency/

Under the state of local emergency, residents may not:

Shower or bathe;
Wash dishes; or
Run washing machines.

As of late Tuesday morning, the situation was considered so dire that the town feared there wouldn’t be enough water available for emergency fire suppression.

The water break had yet to be isolated as of Tuesday afternoon and initial requests to limit water use appear to have been ignored. According to the town, Monday was Cochrane’s highest water usage day this month.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by chemgear

As of late Tuesday morning, the situation was considered so dire that the town feared there wouldn’t be enough water available for emergency fire suppression.

The water break had yet to be isolated as of Tuesday afternoon and initial requests to limit water use appear to have been ignored. According to the town, Monday was Cochrane’s highest water usage day this month.

If it's so dire, why is still just an advisory on the Alberta Emergency Alert system? Sounds like it should be a critical alert. I have to assume it'll get more attention if they issued it like that.

[Fuzz]

"Well, we tried asking nicely and that didn't work. We are all out of ideas."

[Harry Lime]

There are a lot of questions about this break. They haven't been able to isolate the pipe, or turn off the water to replace the break because of the constant flow, which is still draining to the river. There is no timeline for the fix.

A lot of political questions floating around about cronyism and water allocation to businesses, industry and new development, without oversight. Some FOIP requests have already been sent in. Fallout is going to be interesting, if they ever actually fix the pipe.

[chedder]

Yikes. I thought it was a wastewater pipe. Not a water main also. They're talking about trucking water from Calgary.

How can they not find the leak and stop it?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by chedder

Yikes. I thought it was a wastewater pipe. Not a water main also. They're talking about trucking water from Calgary.

How can they not find the leak and stop it?

These people? Naw, #### that. Let them eat cake . . . er, I mean let them eat their own ####.

The fact that they were in an emergency situation, asked to reduce usage but then just went ahead and used even more water than ever is something.

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

We will #### in your water, and you will be happy. Cochrane version of the Great Reset.

Originally Posted by terryclancy

I’m gonna guess the company that managed to break the sewer pipe was Calgarian. Or Edmontonian.

Furthermore, we’re not even close to finished with you. We’ll keep on parking at Crowfoot LRT and riding in on the train we didn’t contribute toward.

Plus, all people coming into MacKay’s for ice cream from Calgary will now be subject to a sewage infrastructure repair surcharge.

It’s how we roll.

[terryclancy]

Originally Posted by chemgear

These people? Naw, #### that. Let them eat cake . . . er, I mean let them eat their own ####.

The fact that they were in an emergency situation, asked to reduce usage but then just went ahead and used even more water than ever is something.

I agree with your last statement. What do the two following quotes have to do with anything?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by terryclancy

I agree with your last statement. What do the two following quotes have to do with anything?

Lol, I'm joking in the first sentence thus the emoji and the reference to the two quotes (that I took as being jokes regarding the relationship between the two population centers.)

[terryclancy]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Lol, I'm joking in the first sentence thus the emoji and the reference to the two quotes (that I took as being jokes regarding the relationship between the two population centers.)

Sorry, my bad.

[Slava]

In a little bit of YYC news, the community consultation for Rio Can is today for the Glenmore Landing Redevelopment. It's basically a done deal, and they're going to have this skate through so that the session isn't really to provide feedback that will change that, but to say "well we heard you and we listened." To that end they have decreased some of the proposed building heights. The traffic and congestion mitigation is actually just things that are needed now regardless of the new builds, but I guess it's part of the package. Will it work with 3000 new residents? Probably not, and Glenmore Landing will basically be unusable. I mentioned that to a nice fellow from the city and he said "well, our hands are kind of tied because there's no access to 14th Street". Well, you don't say?

You can tell that the only people in favour of this are Rio Can, because they can't wait to sell millions of dollars worth of condos there, because of the heavy security presence. They know that no one in the surrounding area wants this, but honestly they don't care. They'll come in, build the towers which will make this area a place to avoid at all costs, and what does it matter to them?

Unfortunately, they've made sure to check the two boxes that matter. Transit-Oriented Development, because there's a bus stop there. We all know that 3000 residents aren't taking that bus anywhere, but it's there in case the congestion getting on to 90th Ave is so unbearable that it's a better option. And of course the housing shortage.

Anyway, I guess this goes to the planning commission next for the rubber stamp and then city council for the final approval.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Slava

In a little bit of YYC news, the community consultation for Rio Can is today for the Glenmore Landing Redevelopment. It's basically a done deal, and they're going to have this skate through so that the session isn't really to provide feedback that will change that, but to say "well we heard you and we listened." To that end they have decreased some of the proposed building heights. The traffic and congestion mitigation is actually just things that are needed now regardless of the new builds, but I guess it's part of the package. Will it work with 3000 new residents? Probably not, and Glenmore Landing will basically be unusable. I mentioned that to a nice fellow from the city and he said "well, our hands are kind of tied because there's no access to 14th Street". Well, you don't say?

You can tell that the only people in favour of this are Rio Can, because they can't wait to sell millions of dollars worth of condos there, because of the heavy security presence. They know that no one in the surrounding area wants this, but honestly they don't care. They'll come in, build the towers which will make this area a place to avoid at all costs, and what does it matter to them?

Unfortunately, they've made sure to check the two boxes that matter. Transit-Oriented Development, because there's a bus stop there. We all know that 3000 residents aren't taking that bus anywhere, but it's there in case the congestion getting on to 90th Ave is so unbearable that it's a better option. And of course the housing shortage.

Anyway, I guess this goes to the planning commission next for the rubber stamp and then city council for the final approval.

Sort of reminds me of the development south of 17th ave between 85th and 76th streets.

They are building a ton of condo buildings when everyone who lives there will drive everyday and the roads won’t support it. Area is going to be broken in like 3 years. They claim the C train is close enough but basically no one will walk to it and the buses are terrible in the area.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Sort of reminds me of the development south of 17th ave between 85th and 76th streets.

They are building a ton of condo buildings when everyone who lives there will drive everyday and the roads won’t support it. Area is going to be broken in like 3 years. They claim the C train is close enough but basically no one will walk to it and the buses are terrible in the area.

That area is interesting to me in how they haven't formally changed future plans for the West LRT line to either have its future Aspen Woods station relocated closer to this development, or simply add it inbetween.

This would actually be a practical location for TOD development since the station would be inbetween all of this density, and a shopping centre across the street.

Bananas if they skip this opportunity, and expect people to walk there from west of 85th street, or use buses from a nearby train station.