Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryB
One of the big challenges with CPT from Main to Route 90 is it is a critical project for the continued growth of the city similar to Kenaston From Bishop to the Perimeter and the Bishop and Kenaston overpass. Outside of the Waverly West area that section of Winnipeg has been the fastest growing for some time but with no new road projects since McPhillips was twinned about 20 years ago. With landing inside the city that can be developed and continue to support further growth some of these projects, such as CPT west, CPT east and William Clement south are going to seeming "cut the line" and jump ahead of other projects like Route 90 widening if funds are running short. The Archibald/Marion/Lag/Dugald area could be another hot spot if the stockyards development ever starts to move forward.
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And one of the big challenges of enabling growth is trying to finance it. The additional growth that could be "accommodated" in that area if CPT were to ever be extended at a $500 million price tag would hardly, if at all, pay for the incremental cost of doing the project.
For example, let's pretend that extending CPT would enable the development of a Waverley West-sized area in that part of the city that would not have otherwise taken place in the absence of extending CPT (i.e. no other suitable land exists elsewhere in Winnipeg that developers would want to develop). That means approximately 10,000 residential units paying an average municipal tax bill of around $2,800 would be added over a 20 or so year time frame. So, assuming it all got built out, the development would add $28 million to the City's tax base annually.
The road that would act as a catalyst for this development is estimated to cost $500 million. $28 million doesn't even come close to covering 10% of its cost. Even if you play around with some assumptions (average tax, number of units, new non-residential property tax), the numbers are still way far off. What's worse is that obviously the new tax revenue from a new development doesn't get 100% shoveled to roadways, 90% of it goes to other city services such as police, fire, recreation, and transit. So after we finish paying for other services needed to accommodate that new neighborhood, we're left with about $2.8 million from the new development that could go towards funding roadways. Even if the city used 100% of that $2.8 million to go towards paying for the CPT extension, that's enough money for the city to finance a loan of less than $30 million over 30 years.
At the end of the day, the current property tax rates in Winnipeg simply aren't high enough to support the cost of new infrastructure, ring roads included. The impact fee was supposed to alleviate some of that, but that money is tied up due to the developer-led lawsuit.