Brandon Minute: Issue 129

Brandon Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Brandon politics

📅 This Week In Brandon: 📅

• The Brandon Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday at 7:00 pm, and one of the items on its agenda is a public hearing on a citywide change to the Zoning By-law. The City is its own applicant, and Principal Planner Sonikile Tembo's letter of intent says the amendment would stop additional dwelling units from being built at the rear of sites where existing dwellings are kept, limiting those additions to secondary suites. Tembo writes that the Zoning By-law has always permitted multiple buildings with dwelling units on one site, and that a developer built units behind single detached housing at 2314 Princess Avenue without any land use application because the current wording technically allows it. Administration says it received resident concerns about building placement and massing, and carried out site visits of what had been built. The change would not alter the rule that multiple buildings with multiple units are permitted on a site. Administration is separately reviewing the whole Zoning By-law to bring it into line with the City Plan, with adoption expected in 2027. The Commission will also hear a conditional use application for 450 12th Street the same evening.
  
  
• Brandon residents are paying 79% more for water and wastewater than they did in 2023, and some say the increases should be an election issue. The city charge has risen from $1.83 per cubic meter of water and $1.63 per cubic meter of wastewater in 2023 to $3.16 and $3.05 after the most recent increase took effect on January 1st. At the Spruce Woods Housing Co-operative, an 81-unit non-profit property housing more than 150 people, the quarterly water bill has gone from $7,350.32 in 2023 to $13,131.22 this year, which property manager Eva Cameron says is "killing" them. A Public Utilities Board report from October 2023 found the City had not applied for a rate review since 2016, despite a provincial recommendation to apply every three years, and said the operating deficits might have been avoided entirely had it done so. The report also recommended the City consult non-profits and other groups about programs to ease the financial hardship, and Cameron says the co-op was never consulted. Mayor Jeff Fawcett says he is empathetic and ties much of the increase to the $130-million water treatment facility expansion, adding that he expects about another year of correction before rates stabilize.
  
  
• The Wheat City Tennis and Pickleball Hub in downtown Brandon reached 80% completion last week and is running about $400,000 over budget, according to project manager Joel Cardinal-Schultz. He attributes the overrun partly to features added after the original plan, including solar panels costing $650,000, cameras on each court for spectators, and an overhead speaker system. The City designated the Pacific Avenue site a community revitalization property, a package that included selling the land for $1 and granting a 10-year, 100% reduction on incremental municipal taxes. Organizers hope to open the building on November 1st, though construction of the roughly 30-space parking lot has been pushed to next year. The facility is projected to draw up to 12,000 visitors in its first year and nearly 60,000 by its tenth. Ryan Nickel, the City's director of planning and buildings, says developers planning housing across the street cited the hub when weighing their investment.
  
  
• Construction on a new Park Community Centre could start as early as next spring, Mayor Jeff Fawcett told about 20 people at a Coffee With the Mayor event at Hobbs Manor on Wednesday. The tender for the detailed plan is out, and Fawcett says construction will begin once that work comes back. The City has put $1.4 million into the project, the provincial government has earmarked $7 million, and Heritage Co-op has contributed $100,000. Fawcett says the $8.5-million figure is fixed and that officials will "descope" the project as far as they need to in order to build within that amount, despite warnings from centre board members that costs could rise. Board president Ken Friedrich says the board is optimistic about the spring timeline, but that a realistic schedule will only be clear once bids come in, and completion could run as late as 2028. The 1946 building is slated for demolition because of safety concerns, code deficiencies, and deterioration, and the replacement will include a stage and 68 new daycare spaces.
  
  
• City Council has adopted a minimum Tier 2 energy performance target for new City-owned buildings and major civic renovations, where that is technically feasible. Council took the step at its September 8th meeting while considering Administration's comments on a set of recommendations from the Environment and Climate Change Committee, which Council had received at its August 17th meeting. Council directed Administration to come back with a comprehensive analysis of them, including affordability considerations and both short-term and long-term financial impacts. 

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