WHEREAS proceeds from the disposition of park land that becomes vested in the municipality as a result of subdivision, and was disposed of by bylaw with the approval of the electors, are to be placed to the credit of a park land acquisition reserve fund; AND WHEREAS the municipality may have a surplus of lands designated as park land over time that it cannot afford to develop in the foreseeable future; AND WHEREAS it would be extremely helpful, particularly to municipalities with limited finances, if the use of these reserve funds were expanded to allow funds to be expended on the development of existing municipal park land: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM lobby the provincial government to amend the Community Charter and Local Government Act to enable local governments to expend park land acquisition funds to develop existing park land within their communities.
Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Funds in lieu of parkland dedication are specifically for the acquisition of park land only. This is to support a policy goal that up to 5 of all new development area is devoted to urban greenspace, which is critical to maintaining liveable and sustainable communities in BC. If some of this money is diverted to improvements for existing parks, there would be less money for park land acquisition thus, defeating the purpose of the policy. The Province fully understands that there is more to a park than land. A park must be developed for public use and enjoyment trails, playgrounds, picnic tables, playing fields, and convenient parking. However, that is not the purpose of park land acquisition. The park land acquisition provisions are designed to ensure that this green space is available for public use. Maintaining and upgrading these facilities beyond basic improvements provides a benefit to the wider community, and thus the cost of such improvements should be shared by all property owners. Widening the scope of section 941of the Local Government Act has been reviewed in the past by the Development Finance Review Committee DFRC, which is chaired by the Ministry and includes representatives from local government, the Province, and the development community. Local governments have other revenue tools to finance improvements to the parks and as such, there was consensus that expanding the parkland dedication provisions to a wider range of services would not be pursued. Local governments have a number of revenue and development tools at their disposal. Some of the revenue generating tools available to local governments are set out in the following documents: Development Finance Choices Guide http:www.cd.gov.bc.calgdintergovrelationslibrarydevelopmentfinanceschoi… Parkland Acquisition Best Practices Guide http:www.cd.gov.bc.calgdintergovrelationslibraryParklandAcquisitionBPG…