WEYBURN – Colour My World Child Care was approved for their bid on city land to expand their facility at 1860 First Avenue NE, along with a three-year tax concession, at Weyburn city council on Monday evening.
The day care made an offer of $70,000 each for two city lots adjacent to their facility, which is lower than their listed price, with the intent to more than double the size of their building and add 90 more child care spaces to the 50 they currently have.
The offer includes a request for council to provide a tax concession for three years.
The proposal is for Colour My World to build an additional facility of 8,000 sq. ft. with an estimated construction value of between $1.25 million to $2 million.
The day care will have to pay the offsite development levy for the new construction, which on an 8,000-sq-ft would amount to $36,080, and would be charged at the development permit stage. The applicants are aware of the levy, and indicated they are willing to pay it if their offer on the land is accepted.
The two lots in question, at 1870 and 1880 First Avenue, were listed at prices of $204,820 and $176,890, or a total of $381,710 plus taxes. The city has had no interest or any serious offers on the land to this point.
In the end, council approved their offer of $70,000 each for a total of $140,000 for the two lots.
Planning and development officer Janine Fletcher noted the day care submitted substantial supporting documents for their proposal, including financial statements, business plan, and letters of support from various community members. They are currently awaiting word from the government for grant funding to help with the costs of construction. They originally bought the land they are on in 2009.
In regard to the tax concession, Fletcher noted they do not qualify for the city’s commercial incentive program, as the proposal is for an addition onto an existing building, not a new stand-alone building.
Coun. Ryan Janke said while the proposal doesn’t qualify for the incentive program by the letter of the law, he thought council could make an exception seeing as they are more than doubling their facility to bring much-needed child care spaces to the community.
“I think this is unique enough. While the commercial initiative may not apply to the letter of the policy, my recommendation is it meets the spirit of the program,” said Coun. Janke.
Coun. Jeff Richards commented that the request for tax abatement needed “deeper discussion” and the plans should be run through the lens of the commercial incentive program.
Fletcher pointed out that the business owners had already been over all of the points and ramifications of the policy. She noted she could not approve their request as a staff member, bound by the rules of the program, but council could make the decision to approve it.
Coun. John Corrigan said he was fully supportive of the initiative, but he was inclined to limit the tax concession to three years from the time the land is purchased.
Part of the conditions of the approval is that the development of the land needs to be started within two years of the sale agreement, and they will have to bear the costs of consolidating the lots with their existing lot.
The land is sold as-is where-is, so any improvements or upgrades to the properties will be the responsibility of the developers.
