Trails

[dtkvictim]

The MUT along Lackner is going to be a welcome change - the current situation north of Ottawa is horrendous.

I'd like it if the bike lane situation on Lackner could be fixed. I laugh every time I bike there because it is so ridiculous.

Just looked it up on street view, and it really does feel like some kind of joke.

[tomh009]

Why not just raise local taxes to pay for local projects?

Of course, if we didn’t take as a given that we need a huge road network we’d probably have lots of money at the local level.

Well, I'd like to see a re-allocation of money.  But apparently there are some reasons why property taxes are not a particularly progressive way to fund services, and the cities are not permitted to levy any other form of taxes apparently.

From the perspective of the federal and provincial governments, giving money in this way is a way for the federal and provincial governments to exert "soft" influence on what cities do...

Yeah. That's the Municipal Act. Additionally it restricts the cities as far as structuring the tax rates, with fixed property classes (Assessment Act!) and, as far as my legal reading can comprehend, no ability to use progressive tax rates on properties. One possibility might be to use property rebates to achieve that, but it's not clear what restrictions apply to those.

[danbrotherston]

Well, I'd like to see a re-allocation of money.  But apparently there are some reasons why property taxes are not a particularly progressive way to fund services, and the cities are not permitted to levy any other form of taxes apparently.

From the perspective of the federal and provincial governments, giving money in this way is a way for the federal and provincial governments to exert "soft" influence on what cities do...

Yeah. That's the Municipal Act. Additionally it restricts the cities as far as structuring the tax rates, with fixed property classes (Assessment Act!) and, as far as my legal reading can comprehend, no ability to use progressive tax rates on properties. One possibility might be to use property rebates to achieve that, but it's not clear what restrictions apply to those.

Ironically, according to one regional council delegation, the reverse actually appears to be true, where because of rules dating from MPAC's introduction, apartment buildings dating to the pre-MPAC era (many more affordable buildings), are actually taxed at double the tax rate of every other building in the city...

Yeah, who knew!

[ijmorlan]

Yeah. That's the Municipal Act. Additionally it restricts the cities as far as structuring the tax rates, with fixed property classes (Assessment Act!) and, as far as my legal reading can comprehend, no ability to use progressive tax rates on properties. One possibility might be to use property rebates to achieve that, but it's not clear what restrictions apply to those.

Ironically, according to one regional council delegation, the reverse actually appears to be true, where because of rules dating from MPAC's introduction, apartment buildings dating to the pre-MPAC era (many more affordable buildings), are actually taxed at double the tax rate of every other building in the city...

Yeah, who knew!

Is it that they count as commercial?

Not an excuse, and a perfect example of why apparently “easy” distinctions that are actually shades of grey should not be treated differently legally, but I have an idea that Toronto has a similar issue although I can’t remember the details.

But hey, large apartment buildings are owned by rich people, right, so it’s all good?

[jamincan]

I'm not sure if this is the best thread, but I was walking along the Kolb Creek Greenway and noticed that this structure for the first time where the trail meets Rothsay Ave.

Now, the creek continue through the culvert on the left between Rothsay and Victoria and eventually empties into the Grand River just south of the Forwell Quarry. The structure on the right seems like some sort of overflow for the creek, but does anyone know where it goes? I've heard of overflows for the sewers going into a river/creek, but it seems unusual that there would be an overflow for a creek into a sewer, especially when the creek below that point seems to higher banks and lots of capacity to handle heavy runoff.

[KevinL]

Could be a stormwater catchbasin - basically a big underground chamber that only fills with water when the banks overflow, and then releases it slowly to reduce flooding downstream.

[Acitta]

Mill Race Trail permanently closed to traffic into St. Jacobs

[nms]

Mill Race Trail permanently closed to traffic into St. Jacobs

This is an unfortunate break in the TransCanada Trail/"The Great Trail".  There is likely a backstory here that the Record isn't able to report because they don't know the details.  There is likely something going on (insurance? zoning request? remediation and a dispute who is supposed to pay for it?)

I noticed that the whole parking lot at the trail head was fenced off all summer for "Tenant Parking Only" yet I never saw any cars parked in it.

There is a very rough trail that follows the train tracks up to Spring Street that would require a lot of work to get up to casual hiking, biking or stroller standards.

[jamincan]

I can't read the Record article, but from what I've read elsewhere, it sounds like the landowner has some other disagreement with the municipality over some sort of drainage issue. The implication was that he's holding the trail hostage to gain leverage over the municipality over this other issue.

What exactly are the rights of the municipality with regard to expropriation? Where there are long-standing trails in place, there seems to me to be a strong public interest in expropriating that land. Can you expropriate just an easement on land? The Grand River Trail between Bridgeport and Kiwanis Park is another stretch that is affected by private property issues. Officially that section is closed, solely because the footing on a bridge is eroding away and the City of Kitchener can't or won't bring equipment in to repair it due to having to cross private property to do so.

[ac3r]

I can't read the Record article

Due to the paywall? If you stick the URL of a news article that is paywalled into Outline.com it'll parse the article and let you read it there. It works on just about every news website that is paywalled. Here is The Record article: https://outline.com/hyMW9b

[creative]

Or support local journalism. I think I pay $6 a month.

[tomh009]

Or support local journalism. I think I pay $6 a month.

Same for me. I don't read the Record every day but I would hate for them to close down, so the access is worth $6 to me.

[dtkmelissa]

Or support local journalism. I think I pay $6 a month.

Same for me. I don't read the Record every day but I would hate for them to close down, so the access is worth $6 to me.

Agreed, we need to support local journalism as much as possible. For those who have limited funds though, you can also access it for free with your library card and the 'press reader' app. More info can be found on kpl.org

[danbrotherston]

Same for me. I don't read the Record every day but I would hate for them to close down, so the access is worth $6 to me.

Agreed, we need to support local journalism as much as possible. For those who have limited funds though, you can also access it for free with your library card and the 'press reader' app. More info can be found on kpl.org

Great tip!  Thanks Melissa.

[ac3r]

Or support local journalism. I think I pay $6 a month.

The Record is garbage, I would never pay them. Local journalism is great, but The Record is awful. They barely do any worthwhile journalism, a lot of the paper is just crap that Metroland Media/Torstar pushes out to all their subsidiary papers or generic press releases they pretend are articles. The greedy paywall is a complete turn off as well, there are better ways to provide good journalism without both preventing potential readers from reading anything, but also begging them for money at the same time.