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BHC condo boards want Town of Banff to take over ownership of private roads

“This is an interesting idea that needs to be explored a little bit more, obviously accepting the fact that there could be huge precedent set here,” said Banff Councillor Grant Canning.

BANFF – Four condominium associations under the Banff Housing Corporation’s portfolio are lobbying the Town of Banff to take over ownership and maintenance of the private roads within the developments.

Residents of Sulphur Court, Riverview Court, Middle Springs Drive 100 and 200 blocks, and Sundance Court argue the costs of maintaining the private roads and other infrastructure are rising every year, leading to increasing condo fees that make the homes less affordable.

Homeowners say the private roads are creating a financial burden on BHC homeowners, noting about $60 of the $400 monthly condo fees are spent on road and utility infrastructure maintenance and replacement for Sundance.

“Our perspective is the housing corporation is to provide perpetual affordable housing,” said Pierre-Hugues Gagnon, who addressed the Sept. 13 BHC shareholders’ meeting as a Sundance Court resident and not a Town of Banff employee.

In response, council acting as the shareholders, unanimously directed administration to investigate the current road ownership scenarios, including history on why they were structured that way. The shareholders also asked for a list of other multi-residential associations comprised of more than four units with private roads.

Some councillors, however, expressed concerns about the precedent a decision to take over ownerships of these four roads might have on other private condominium developments elsewhere in the townsite outside of the BHC’s portfolio.

“This is an interesting idea that needs to be explored a little bit more, obviously accepting the fact that there could be huge precedent set here,” said Coun. Grant Canning.

“It’s a big can of worms, and if council goes down that road it’s not just dealing with the BHC, but council has to be very mindful that could have implications across the entire community.”

The BHC developments of Sulphur Court, Riverview Court, Middle Springs Drive 100 and 200 blocks, and Sundance Court represent 79 owner-occupied units, approximately 50 per cent of the BHC portfolio.

Residents are responsible for the maintenance, repair and replacement of their roadways and underground utilities, snow and ice management, road surface replacement, water main and sanitary sewer main replacement and insurance.

The four condo associations argue the funding requirements for operating budgets and capital replacement reserves are limiting the affordability of these BHC homes in comparison to other BHC properties on Jasper Way, Middle Springs Drive 300 block and Fairholme Place, which do not own the roads adjacent to their properties.

They note condominium fees are a key criteria for financing approval, making it a growing challenge for new owners to qualify for a mortgage.

“This situation increases the cost of home ownership by having higher condominium fees for all of the BHC properties located on the four roads,” said the presidents of each condo association in a letter to the Town of Banff.

The BHC’s board of directors has backed the homeowners’ requests for the Town of Banff to take over ownership and maintenance of the four roads given the mandate to provide affordable housing.

Town of Banff officials say a progressive increase in purchases for the equity-share homes – the ones in which BHC owns a percentage of a home – is beginning to make it challenging for the average citizen to afford to buy.

“A lower condo fee is much more appealing," said Sharon Oakley, the Town’s housing sustainability manager.

"It's hard to get into housing here no matter how you slice this, so anything we can do to increase the affordability of the BHC portfolio is a win for the residents of Banff.”

Councillor Peter Poole, however, raised a concern that the one-time acquisition of roads could lead to a boost in sale prices for those housing units, which goes against the aim of keeping them affordable.

“If those liabilities were removed it seems to me that the selling price of the properties might boost,” he said. “I think that would lead to temporal inequities and I am concerned about how to manage those temporal inequities.”

Town Manager Kelly Gibson said that was certainly possible, noting it may make the home more attractive and cause a one-time bump in housing prices.

“I guess on an ongoing basis that would probably be a lesser impact than the condo fees, but it could very well cause a one-time bump in prices and nullify the effects of affordability through the house price itself,” he said.

The original decision to make the roads in these developments private in the first place was made by the Town of Banff and BHC as the developer.

Darren Enns, the Town’s director of planning and development, said while homeowners would not have been involved in those conversations, they would have known the roads were private at the time of purchase.

“I would say, yes, that would have been clear because they would have had a condo plan which said, ‘yes, this is a private road’,” he said.

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