Skip to content

County of Paintearth meeting highlights

The second round of the County of Paintearth’s Land Use Bylaw public engagement survey is now complete
24295782_web1_210225-CAS-CountyPaintearthHighlights-county_1

By Kevin J. Sabo

For the Advance

County of Paintearth council has approved two new bylaws during their recent Feb. 17th meeting.

The first bylaw passed, Bylaw 695-21, the Penalties on Current and Arrears of Property Taxes bylaw, re-establishes tax penalties of five per cent for accounts in arrears as of July 1st, 2021, and 10 per cent as of Oct. 1st.

“This is getting it back to how we used to do it,” said Lana Roth, the County of Paintearth director of corporate services.

Due to the pandemic which began early last year, as a way to provide some relief to ratepayers who may have been struggling financially, council approved changes to the tax penalties and dates they would kick in for 2021.

The second bylaw passed is Bylaw 696-21, the County of Paintearth Borrowing Bylaw.

This bylaw establishes a $2 million operating line of credit for the County so that they may continue operating until taxes start coming in later in the year. Under the Municipal Government Act, which all municipalities in the province must follow, the County of Paintearth is required to pass the Borrowing Bylaw on an annual basis.

Community engagement

The second round of the County of Paintearth’s Land Use Bylaw public engagement survey is now complete.

Originally scheduled to take place in person, due to the ongoing government restrictions associated with the pandemic, the second round of the public engagement survey took place online between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Jan. 1st, 2021.

Ratepayers in the County were asked to answer questions about proposed changes to the Land Use Bylaw, which is scheduled for redevelopment.

While not as many people participated in the second round of public engagement, around 70 people participated in the online survey. The results of the second round have been published on the County of Paintearth web site (www.countypaintearth.ca).

With these results complete, the County is progressing to the final stage of public engagement.

Development fees

After seeing only one increase in the last decade, the County’s development fees and charges are increasing.

Development fees for permitted use projects will be increasing from $50 to $100. Discretionary use projects are going from $100 to $200. Industrial Discretionary Use projects will be going from $200 to $400. Land rezoning requests will remain at $300. Subdivision and Development appeal fees are jumping from $200 to $400.

One thing to note is that during the redevelopment of the County’s Land Use Bylaw, “A lot of discretionary uses are moving to permitted,” according to Director of Community Services Todd Pawsey.

Coronation radio tower

The Town of Coronation has requested assistance from the County of Paintearth for funding a radio tower the municipality has purchased for fire services.

Since the Coronation Fire Department responds to fire calls in the County of Paintearth, the community is requesting that the County fund 50 per cent of the nearly $42,000 total bill, as well as assistance with additions of $9,500 for costs associated with geo-sampling at the new site, as well as the placement of anti-climb panels.

In a motion put forward by Coun. Diane Elliot, the County of Paintearth council has agreed to fund 50 per cent of the bill for the tower, but no part of the $9,500 in additional costs.