Yellowknifers could soon need to pay $2,500 to appeal a development — up from $25

Experts and a resident who has gone through Yellowknife's development appeal process in the past say a major increase to appeal fees would stifle the democratic process.

On Monday, members of city council agreed at a governance and priorities committee meeting that the fee for appealing developments should be increased from $25 to $2,500. (That's still well below the $5,750 fee originally proposed.)

The proposed change, brought forward by developer and councillor Rob Warburton, is expected to formally come to city council on Aug. 26 for a vote.

"[It's] exorbitantly out of proportion with other cities and towns and municipalities," said Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, of the proposed fee.

"It puts it out of reach for people who [have] limited financial means."

Elizabeth Doyle, a resident who recently appealed the development permit for an apartment building in the Niven subdivision of Yellowknife, told CBC the ability to appeal was very important to her, even though she ultimately lost.

If she'd had to pay $2,500, Doyle said she wouldn't have been able to afford it.

"It's just a reality that most people don't have $2,500 waiting for this. It took a lot of time and effort for me," she said.

"It was a lot. It's a serious process."

What do other municipalities do?

In arriving at the $2,500 figure, councillors looked at the cost of development appeals in other areas of the country.

Many of those range in the hundreds of dollars. In Alberta, Edmonton charges $100, while Calgary charges $200; the fee is slightly higher in smaller cities like St. Albert (between $230 and $350) and Grande Prairie ($367.50).

Vancouver, by comparison, sets a fee of $2,840.

Yellowknife councillors ultimately landed on $2,500 after hearing what Vancouver charges. The originally suggested $5,750 would have been closer to cost-recovery, they were told.

Concern over frivolous appeals

On Monday, Warburton told his fellow committee members that appeals are supposed to give residents a chance to fight if the city's zoning bylaw hasn't been applied properly.

"In reality, we all know this is not what's actually happening," he said. "What's actually happening is the development appeal board process is being used to delay and try to prevent permitted zoning bylaw uses."

Warburton said appeals eat up staff time (100 hours per appeal), and claimed the process of having their development appealed is costing developers an average of $18,000 in professional fees and lawyer fees, on top of the costs of having their projects delayed by as much as 100 days. That's interfering with efforts to address the city's housing affordability issues, he said.

He suggested many residents who appeal "for the low cost of 25 bucks" aren't doing so in good faith, and can prepare as little as they want to for the appeal hearing.

He said in the last five years, only two appeals have been successful, and that "simply meant those projects still went ahead, but with massive delays and amendments."

The city's development appeal board has sat for two appeals so far this year, and two last year, as well as one in 2022 and one in 2021, according to its website.

His suggestion got general support from other committee members, with Coun. Steve Payne describing residents' recent appeals as a "weaponization" of the appeal process. Some councillors supported a higher fee, but not as high as originally proposed.

Speaking to the possibility of waiving the fee for people with low income, Payne cautioned that it could be abused.

"Maybe I'm a crook at heart, but the first thing I think about is, I'm going to find somebody in the neighbourhood that meets that [low-income threshold] and put the application in through them ... That's what I would do," he said.

Doyle, the resident who had recently appealed the Niven development, told CBC the appeal process she went through was "awful, awful, awful."

"I wouldn't recommend doing it," she said, describing being up against the city's and developer's lawyers by herself.

She said neither she nor her neighbours objected to having construction behind them, but when the city changed its zoning bylaw, the scope of the project changed.

"There's no room for residents to even have an opinion," she said.

Not a conflict of interest, says Warburton

Asked by CBC whether he was in a conflict of interest as a councillor and developer, bringing forward a motion that would make it more difficult for residents to appeal developments, Warburton told CBC he isn't.

"Absolutely 100 per cent not," he said. "I'm not doing it for a project I'm doing. It is for development in general in our city."

He said he was "quite surprised" by the question.

Council's code of ethics bylaw describes a conflict of interest as "circumstances where an individual is, or could be, influenced, or appear to be influenced, by a personal interest when carrying out their public duty including anything that gives rise to bias, prejudgment, close mindedness, or undue influence."

It says there's an exemption for members who have a personal interest, but where that interest is no different from the community's interest.

Experts told CBC it's important for politicians to both be — and appear to be — fair and objective.

Williams, the associate professor, said she sees several issues with the proposal that benefit developers over ordinary citizens, creating a "David and Goliath" situation.

"There's the question of fairness that comes into this," she said.