Clean Up Alberta - 2 Year Report Card

Accomplishments in the First Two Years

City Hall Restructure

Spending restructure

Commercial Tax Base Restructure

Introduce Job Creation into Chestermere

Critical Projects Shutdown within the first 48 hrs by McIver's takeover of City Hall

City Hall Restructure

Understand financial situation
Staff issues, Staff changes and improvements
deleting files
hiding things
delaying things
change and improve Culture towards taxpayers funds & wasteful spending

Spending restructure

Significant changes needed in philosophy towards Taxpayers money.
Understanding efficiency & effectiveness
Common sense

Commercial Tax Base Restructure

communicate with business, investment and development community a change in attitude towards them.
Anchor tenant incentives - restructure off site levies for these parcels only
Sell lifestyle resort plan for companies & staff

Introduce Job Creation into Chestermere

Living and working in Chestermere is a dream. No rush hour, more time with your families, home for lunch. Happier employees.

Commercial & retail districts
Small builder/developer program with Acreages development restructuring

Events

Chestermere Carnival 2023

The most successful event ever held in Chestermere. With over 20,000 community members taking part.

Canada Day 2023 Celebrations

Over 3500 attended the fun event.

Chestermere Winter Lights Festival 2023

Tremendous display and a huge turnout by residents.

120 Day Plan Review

120 Day.pdf

Here are some of the goals that we were working on before the election. Once elected we continued to work on these and were able to achieve most of the 13 goals.

Most surprising was the resistance by some community members to stop the City from supporting and expanding services for the residents of Chestermere.

Completed Projects

Our initial Focus was on simple changes:
1. Canceled Civil Discourse Policy that impacted residents freedom of speech. Instituted by Ex-Mayor Chalmers & CAO Morton.
2. Our Council stopped the $40M Field House over spending. Evidence was found proving costs were overstated by approx. $25M. Needs criminal investigation.
3. Open rainbow road north to Hwy #1. We were the first Council in approx. 30 years to open this road and had it paved. Solving a poor design.
4. West chst drive turn lanes onto Chst Blvd. Providing three lanes rather than only two. Plus significantly increasing the safety of turning left(west) allowing a much better sight line, solving a poor design.
5. Change speed limit from 60kph to 80kph on chst blvd.
6. Added a turning signal at rainbow rd & Chst Blvd. Solving the numerous accidents that kept happening. Solving a poor design.
7. Added 19 digital speed signs to increase safety throughout chestermere.
8. Successfully, Lobbied the Solicitor General of Alberta for Approval of first ever Peace Officer Patrol Adventure Motorcycles. City purchased two Motorcycles to assist in deterring crime in Chestermere. For two years Chestermere has been on a significant downward trend relating to crime.
9. Stopped the City from wasting over $350,000 on new un-pleasant main entry signs. The older original signs had more character. Asked residents on facebook poles their opinions.
10. Successfully doubled social program and event funding. Highest amount of funding ever provided to non for profits.
11. Added 4 new rcmp officers at a cost of approx. $1M/yr. Rcmp had not had any additional funding since before 2014. Without raising taxes.
12. Successfully added federally mandated RCMP backpay of approx. $1.5M without raising taxes.
13. Added 6 firefighters to the Fire Dept. at a cost of approx. $1M, without raising taxes.
14. Upgraded firefighter radios to the latest available for approx. $400k. Without raising taxes.
15. Upgrade firefighter requirements such that all new firefighters will be EMTs. (medically trained)
16. Upgraded playgrounds
17. Reduced boat launch fees for residents and rockyview residents.
18. Supported low income and diversity & inclusion with providing access to community connectivity and recreation at crca.
19. Expanded public safety with cctv cameras at John Peake and along Chestermere Blvd as a pilot project, with license plate recognition technology.
20. Negotiated approvals for acceleration lanes on glenmore tr. and rainbow rd and rainbow rd. and hwy 1 with Alberta Transportation.
21. Rebuilt and added pickle ball courts and a basket ball court in the cove as part of the CSI (Community Sports Court Initiative)
22. Funding was provided and scheduled to start construction May 2024, for three new outdoor Sport Court areas as part of the Community Sports Courts Initiative. Each would have 2 Basketball courts, 2 Tennis Courts, 6 Pickleball Courts, 2 lawn bowling greens . First east of Windermere Dr. Steve King Dog Park behind the Manor. 2nd along the canal at kinniburgh, 3rd near the middle school.

Community, (Youth, Adults, Families, Seniors) Sports Courts Initiative

Focus on most complicated issues, rather than avoid them
1. lawsuit $16m, 14 years. Try to negotiate.
2. School sites.
3. Built 3 dog parks.
4. Twinning rainbow, push traffic circles concept and construction
5. offsite levies increase 35% & restructure
6. Stop the City banking developer deals (infrastructure)
7. City Financial structure makes no sense. It needs to be rebuilt.
8. Stopping Golf course development
9. Centron, Clearwater approvals successfully passed. Negotiated with Centron to design water and sewer lines under the lake rather than the $200M solution the previous city was thinking south of the lake.
10. Economic Development Division team established in City Hall
11. Major focus on enhancing our commercial tax base. Successfully bringing $4.2 Billion dollars worth of Commercial development to Chestermere, in progress, negotiating and contracted. Never been done before by any council.

12. Webster Land Flop completely turned around

1. 1. Chestermere most embarrassing and questionable project that was bought by the ex-Mayor Matthews Council.
    1. No appraisals were used to buy the land. Council paid $8.5M for lands that was not worth it.
    2. Investigations were underway into the extremely over priced swamp lands.
  2. 100 acres

Projects Started

golf course long term solution
Annexation
Entertainment District- coffee shops, retail, live music, residential, restaurants, waterfront restaurants, pubs.
Main Street - Retail, shops, culture, community area.
Little Italy - Retail, residential, professional offices, restaurants
Westcreek Business Campus, significant business
East Lake Development, Residential, retail, Joint venture, Irrigation Lake, Storm water Lake and Recreation lake designed.
Dredging of Chestermere Lake, in negotiation with WID.
South Lake, storm water and new sister City planned.
Acreage growth integration - East acreages, North acreages, Paradise acreages.
New City Web page completed. Badly needed for past 10 years.
Chestermere Today, community news successfully started and distributed.
Monthly news booklet distributed throughout Chestermere.

14. East Acreages Plan -to solve the 15 year dilemma

1. East Acreage residents were told by the ex-Mayors Matthews that they would get services if they agreed to the annexation in 2009. Only to have the City renege on the promise.
2. East Acreages plan to solve the residents 15 year dilemma.
  1. Issue: Need to re-envision the idea around acreage development for Cities. Planners don't understand acreage development as it pertains to connecting with large development areas. Developers do not want to take the amount of time to negotiate with that many land owners. Residents are not developers, they do not want to invest the major amounts of funds required for large development and do not have the expertise.
  2. Unlock land value for residents.
    1. How to let residents realize the trapped value in their lands, which is usually meant for developers?
    2. How to get residents started, reduce their risk, help bring development ideas and density ideas?
    3. Start with a focus on Seniors Villas and new concept of homes with shops for active lifestyles (always frowned upon by municipalities of all sizes)
  3. Introduce my concept of Gradual Densification to Staff & Residents. Usually standard development, develops in large phase of 60 to 100 lots. This is very costly to the average person. Gradual Density, brings down the economic barrier and allows a small developer (resident) access to land development profits, unlocking the value in their own lands. This allows a few homes, villas, townhomes or the lots to be developed at a time.
  4. Gradual Density & Infrastructure. This is a challenge, but not impossible. Of course City planners are more familiar with large scale development on raw land, all done in a specific order, following a specific process. Though, we have the same duty to our acreage taxpayers to create a process for them to follow to allow them to develop their lands, while following proper development planning and engineering principles. Effectively we will arrive at the same place in the end, though our path getting there may be different. Creating a plan and process that allows connectivity and flow between land owners lands to allow proper flow of water, sewer, gas, telecommunication, roads, sidewalks, lots, density and product types. Just because its new and challenging is not a reason to explore.
  5. Introduce small developers & small builders. This group cannot get land product in Calgary as all new developments go to large builders only. Small builders are forced into the risky infill market. Where you buy an older house in a popular area, tear it down and build two infill homes, $750,000 to $1,250,000 or a condo building. The issue is the prices are all very high, a riskier market to sell in and the process is long getting approvals, meaning a lot of risk. Home builders want a good return at lower priced homes, $450,000 to $700,000, as the market is broader and easier to sell in. Acreage development with a City willing to set up a program to manage Acreage development specific problems will allow access to huge untapped economic growth centres and Job creation for Chestermere and City residents in the various trades. Acreage owners can sell a few lots at a time to small developer/ builders allowing their land value to be unlocked for the resident and still getting professionals to develop the land, manage the City approvals, all at an affordable price.
  6. Amend City bylaws to allow development of Acreages built gradually. Simplest example is where a land owner wants to develop five lots per acre and has 4 acres of land and does not want to develop all lots at once. Lets say he will develop 3 lots a year. Traditionally, he would be forced to service all the lots, pave the road, sidewalk, all required infrastructure. The upfront cost would be millions and cost prohibitive to the average resident. A simple change is allowing the roads to be developed gradually, allow gravel, with funds put aside a bit at a time, to allow them to be paved at 6 lots, or 2 years or so, once the sales are for sure coming in. Allowing the land owner to sell these lots for approx $250,000 each, three a year for 2 years. Depending on your deal with the small developer, allowing you to bank approx. $1,200,000. Paying your fees, broken down per lot as they sell. Then continuing to gradually develop the balance of the lots.
  7. Amend City Bylaws allowing flexibility with fees. Allow fees to be paid gradually as lots are sold, rather than all up front, simple concept but not followed by municipalities. Upfront fees is a major barrier to the industry that the fees associated with approvals are so significant and cause a barrier to unlock not just value for the land owner, but increased taxable land for the City and the increased economic activity it creates for the area. The City will always get its fees, as it has control over lots, plus a caveat would be registered on each lot, requiring discharge once fees are paid, ideally when lot is sold or built on. This alone would unlock vast amounts of lands in all municipalities, where often the older, risk averse population are the owners of large land parcels and the thought of paying a bunch of fees and costs up front just to see if your lots might sell, is just to risky and their land value does not get unlocked for the owner and the municipality doesn't unlock the tax value in the land either.
  8. Slow down on the Tax Change Burden to acreage development. This two is a major barrier to development for small acreage owners. Once they get subdivision, the tax value of the land changes and the acreage owner is now paying, as per the example above, for 20 lots or $3000 to $4000 each. Developers want these lots presold before they are finished such that they are not sadled with these tax costs. Though, this causes land owners to be very nervous of developing their lands, if the lots do not sell quickly. The City, wants to encourage economic activity and this barrier cause massive amounts of lands to remain locked up. Stopping any gains in economic activity for many many years, no new tax dollars, not unlocking value for the land owner. It is very short sighted, but municipalities do this to themselves all the time. The change would be to allow the tax payment not to change until the lot is sold or built on. When the value is realized everyone gets paid. Encouraging economic activity.
  9. Resulting Economic activity. Logically, acreage land is taxed very low per sqft as compared to regular sized residential lots. Let's say a land owner has ten acres. He pays $4000 to $7000 a year in tax. If he developed seniors retirement villas, he would easily have 10 units per acre. That would be 100 senior retirement villas on ten acres. Each home would generate approx. $4000 in tax revenue. That's $400,000 in tax revenue for 100 homes vs. $4000 to $7000 as an acreage. Plus the land owner could generate approx. $15M-20,000,000 revenue. This is a significant win for both groups. Not taking into account the economic activity of paying salaries to all the trades involved, designers, delivery persons, professionals, living in Chestermere, paying mortgages, taxes, buying food and goods, supporting all sorts of other businesses in our City.
  10. Change attitudes and encourage Acreage Development.
  11. Change attitudes of land owners about development & density.
  12. Investigate existing infrastructure. - never done before ? Staff attitude change, staff held back, staff options. willing to think outside the box.
  13. Analyze City's past dismal, $80M pipeline plan for East Acreages
  14. Analyze applicability to North Acreages & Paradise Meadows Acreages.
  15. Results were a resounding success !!

15. Clearwater Development - Along with a Medical Campus, Industrial Park and Business Campus. $2.6 Billion worth of commercial tax base.

16. Serenity development consisting of a Medical Campus, Urgent Care Centre and Business district and Seniors retirement village. $950 Million worth of commercial tax base.

17. Westcreek Business Campus - $100M of commercial tax base, $20M of sales profit to residents. Offering a proper business offices and small retail area for service type businesses.

18. Little Italy - Brand new retail, professional services, restaurants, entertainment area and residential area. Bringing culture and economic wealth to the community. Bringing $19M of sales profit to residents, $200M of commercial/residential tax base.

19. CRCA Purchase - One of the most surprising was the resistance by the CRCA Board, with such an important community initiative. The board was trying to block the City from stepping into operations, stopping their lawsuit with Rockyview and purchasing the lands from Rockyview. In order to allow the building of new rinks and facilities for the residents of Chestermere. The City was agreeing to keeping the staff, user groups and all pricing. As indicated the City wanted to reduce the rates to the user groups, making recreation more accessible and to expand the programs that the facility offered to the residents.

As explained to the CRCA Board, by the City becoming a member and becoming responsible for operations. This gives the City standing directly with Rockyview in the lease agreement. This allows the City to require arbitration/mediation by the province. Failing this not resolving the issue, the City's next steps are to expropriate the lands from Rockyview, then if the CRCA Board is still trying to stop the City from improving the facilities for residents, the City would cancel the lease with the CRCA Board and then expand and upgrade the facilities for the community. Adding rinks, a pool, an indoor soccer field and seniors centres.

It was recently discovered that RVC bought the CRCA lands for $1 in roughly 1979 from the community association, on the false claim that they needed to be the owners as they were the only ones able to obtain a grant to expand the facility. This is another matter that should be adjudicated.

Critical Projects Shutdown within the first 48 hrs by McIver's takeover of City Hall

Terminated all projects started by Mayor Colvin & Council.
1. Main street project
2. Entertainment District John Peake
3. North Beach
4. John Peake Beach
5. Westcreek Business Campus
6. Little Italy Project
7. Community sport court initiative
8. Hwy 1 bypass - creating a major economic area for Chestermere to benefit from for years.
9. Annexation, McIver, Lagore and Vincent do not understand the growth of Chestermere and the importance of long term planning. Mistakenly they believe we have 25 years worth of land left to develop with in Chestermere. We are developing approx. 180 to 200 acres a year of land , growing at 40 to 60% a year, leaving us approx. 5 to 7 years of lands left. Chestermere badly needs to focus on long term planning to ensure the small town feel of Chestermere is maintained.
10. Dredging Chestermere lake.
11. Expansion of Sunset park, adding lands for new volley ball courts and community areas.
12. South shores community beach
13. Skateboard park, 2 rinks, tennis courts, basketball courts, community picnic areas, indoor soccer field house and the pool at CRCA.
14. Dawson Sports plex, 4 rinks, 2 indoor soccer fields, 6 indoor basketball, 6 indoor volleyball, 6 indoor pickleball, indoor pool.
15. Trades High School
16. Library JV with High School Library.
Ratified Union deal, before it was ready, with significant strategic negotiations left.
Terminated South Lake Storm water solution. Costing residents $36 Million of lost land sales, and offsite levy.

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