Melfort council is questioning the fairness of a policy that’s designed to ensure there’s construction on property sold by the city, as opposed to having it remaining empty, held by real estate speculators.
The city’s current policy is that once a property is bought, the owner has a year to build. That can be extended by a year by council. Yet when someone asked council if they could buy a property and build in two years, council refused, as that was counter to the policy.
Rick Lang, Melfort’s mayor, said Coun. Trent Mitchell questioned at the July 10 council meeting how fair it was to allow someone to take two years to build through extensions but not give them two years if they asked council directly.
“The question was: why do we have these time frames if we don’t adhere to them?” Lang said.
So Coun. Doug Terry had a suggestion: examine the possibility of financial penalties to those that take an extension.
“We told administration in the next little while, when they get a chance,” Lang said, “to have a look at the building policy as far as the timeline that’s given – from the time you buy a property until you have a building erected – and what ramifications can there be if you come back and ask for an extension.”
Lang said it was a good idea to have a closer look at the issue and see what – if anything – needs to be done.
“I thought the question was great and the suggestion was great, so it’s something we have to look at because obviously there’s a shortcoming in the policy as it exists, so we’ll have to look at that and strengthen it up and fix it – if it needs that.”
Wellness Centre sidewalk will have to wait
A request from the builder of the new Wellness Centre to replace the sidewalks to the north and east of the site will have to wait.
Lang said all spending for sidewalk improvements in 2017 has been set, allocated and spoken for when the city’s capital budget was passed in the winter, so it’s not possible to add that request from Avatex this year.
“In this particular instance, it’s just poor timing because they’re asking us when we’re well into our 2017 capital budget,” he said. “It’s impossible to adjust some of those things now because it’s just too far down the road.”
The mayor said the replacement could be done next year.
“At this point in time, all I can say is we’re going to include that sidewalk request in 2018 budget deliberations for the capital budget.”
Clean audit
MNP has found no problems when it audited the city’s 2016 financial statements. It made a presentation to council at a June 26 special meeting.
“From Meyers Norris Penny’s professional opinion, there were no concerns and everything was done according to accounting standards,” Lang said.
The mayor said the audit revealed the city had more revenue and expenses than expected.
“I can say we have a surplus. I don’t know what the final surplus numbers are,” the mayor said, later adding the audit measured non-monetary items like depreciation while council is more interested in what money is available – something that had to be calculated by the city’s staff. “We’ll be dealing with that probably at the next regular council meeting, allocating the surplus out.”
