Several approvals were granted by North Battleford city council Monday for various discretionary use and tax incentive applications.
In addition to two separate discretionary use applications that were approved for cannabis retail outlets in the city, council also approved the following:
A discretionary use application to establish a hair salon as a home-based business at 2002 - 99th St.
Another discretionary use application for a secondary suite at 992 - 110th St. was carried at council. Administration also recommended the discretionary use fee be waived and that they also receive the two-year 50 per cent municipal tax incentive for secondary suites.
Also approved was a land purchase and subdivision of the 100th Street service road located north of 20th Avenue.
City administration had been working with owners of those properties north of 20th Avenue to redesign and reconstruct the roadway, according to a city memo from City Planner Ryan Mackrell.
The land is being acquired from Garrett Holdings, with a turn-around bulb to be put in at the end of the service road, instead of a dead end. The total purchase price is $34,881.20 plus GST to accommodate the area required for the road widening there.
Councillor Greg Lightfoot said he was happy to see administration address the situation.
“It’s been an eyesore for a while. It will be really nice to get that development finished in there,” said Lightfoot.
A parking request by the RCMP was also approved. The RCMP intends to put in three stalls behind their building on 102nd Street. These would be designated 10-minute loading-zone stalls that would be used by the RCMP to load items such as sensitive equipment.
Two items related to the downtown tax-incentive policy were before council Monday. One was an application by Linda Bomok of Linda’s Northern Pawn for building façade and site improvements at a location on 101st Street. The total cost of the improvements was $4,510, making her eligible for an incentive of $1,127.50. That carried unanimously.
A recommendation to council from executive committee regarding the Rainbow Cinema's tax bill was reviewed. Council approved a resolution that taxes levied by applying the vacant commercial rate to 1131 - 101st St. be abated, and that only the commercial levy mill rate be applied to the property for 2018.
The much-higher vacant commercial rate was brought in a year ago to crack down on vacant properties and put them back into circulation.
The rationale behind abating it in this case, according to Mayor Ryan Bater, is that while this commercial property is vacant, the “spirit and intent of the disincentive for vacant commercial properties has really been met,” he said.
“This building owner has invested in the property, has actively tried to find a tenant and the feeling was it was not appropriate to apply the vacant commercial rate to that property.”
