A new bylaw that would have more than doubled the amount that the city charges for offsite development has died on the council floor after not receiving enough support from Moose Jaw's councillors. The bylaw would have increased rates that were last updated more than 2 decades ago - rates that allow the city to recoup the cost of installing new infrastructure on new land for developers.

Tolmie said the rates are out of date, charging just $32,000 per acre, compared to many other cities who are in the $80,000 range - a rate a consultant suggested was more in line with the cost to the city. It meant developers were getting a major deal and taxpayers were subsidizing the work. The bylaw to make it official, however, was defeated. This was a surprise to Mayor Fraser Tolmie.

"I've spoken to a couple of councillors and I've spoken to administration as well. I guess the general feeling of those that defeated it is that they are not opposed to the development levy bylaw, but they want to consult with local developers and introduce it when we have a new City Manager."

Another reason the motion was potentially defeated, aside from the vacant City Manager position, was confusion as to what defeating the bylaw would actually mean and when revisions to the bylaw could take place.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie says that is something that will have to be discussed.

"We have to have a conversation afterwards when something like that happens and just get someone's point of view. People have to express that so that we actually understand why they made the decisions, and not be there scratching our heads afterwards thinking 'I thought this was the direction we were going'. It's about communicating and it's about communicating with each other."

Since the bylaw was defeated, they can't just re-introduce it as that would go against policy, so Tolmie says they'll need to tweak it and re-debate the intent before moving forward.

You can see the original article about the bylaw being given initial approval here