Council adopts Parnaby Road local area service bylaw

Cranbrook City Council adopted a bylaw establishing a local area service for the proposed Parnaby Road reconstruction and directed staff to submit the loan authorization to the Inspector of Municipalities.

A local area service covers a specific neighbourhood, not the entire city, and is funded by residents or property owners who benefit directly.

General city taxpayers would not pay for the project, which would rebuild Parnaby Road and the connecting local road to Corral Boulevard to city standards.

Council adopted the bylaw during its inaugural meeting with the newly elected council on Monday (Nov. 2).

Work would include rebuilding and widening the road and adding streetlights, drainage, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, gravel shoulders and a water meter, along with related property and access work.

The City estimates the project will cost $6.54 million, including engineering, city administration, financing and a 50 per cent contingency to reduce the risk of an unfunded cost overrun.

Cranbrook could borrow the money for up to 25 years. Project and borrowing costs would be recovered through parcel taxes on the six properties in the local service area, rather than through general property taxes.

Property owners could pay their share in a lump sum or through annual parcel-tax payments, the City says. The obligation would apply to each parcel whether development proceeds.

Existing developed strata properties and the golf course are not expected to be affected.

Proposed Parnaby Road LAS map. (Image Supplied by the City of Cranbrook)

Development at Shadow Mountain began before the required roads and services were completed and without adequate security.

The City says the proposed road service follows a similar approach to the Shadow Mountain Sanitary Sewer Construction Local Area Service adopted in 2022.

According to the City, the sewer system should have been completed before or during the first subdivisions, when house construction began. It was installed 10 years later through the local area service in 2022 to provide the required sewer service and allow development to continue.

“Kudos to our staff for finding a way to get to yes, to help this development move ahead,” says Mayor Tom Shypitka.

“Yes, $6.5 million is a lot of money, but the loan will be repaid by the property owners in that area who will benefit from the new road, not the general taxpayer.

“This initiative will enable new housing development on the east side of Shadow Mountain that otherwise may be delayed for many more years, and the City will gain a housing development in a very desirable new riverfront neighbourhood.”

Construction is planned to begin in 2027 if the Inspector of Municipalities approves the loan authorization bylaw and council subsequently adopts it.