Massive hike in Yellowknife development appeal fees proposed

Yellowknife’s council appears set to increase the fee for appealing developments in the city from $25 to $2,500.

Hiking the fee by two orders of magnitude comes in response to a request from councillor Rob Warburton, who said the existing process was so cheap that it could be abused by residents seeking to delay nearby housing projects they don’t like.

The appeal process exists to challenge developments where the zoning bylaw has been badly applied, and comes with strict limits on what can actually be challenged.

“In reality, we all know this is not what’s actually happening,” said Warburton at a meeting on Monday.

“What’s actually happening is the development appeal board process is being used to delay and try to prevent permitted zoning bylaw uses.”

Warburton wanted to see the fee – which is returned if an appeal is successful – increased from $25 to $5,750, which he said was a City Hall estimate two years ago for the average cost in staff time of each appeal.

The councillor, who runs a real estate investment company but is not a developer, said he had spoken with developers working in the city, who had estimated they spend an average of $18,000 on each appeal.

“The actual cost is time,” Warburton continued, asserting that each appeal “adds over 100 days of potential delays and the developer has to carry all the costs of that idling project.”

How often do appeals succeed?

The development appeal board – an independent three-person panel – has rarely sided with appellants in recent years.

The most recent example is a four-storey, 24-unit housing development on Hagel Drive in Yellowknife’s Niven neighbourhood.

One resident paid $25 to appeal that development. A hearing was held in May and a decision issued earlier this month. The board dismissed all six grounds put forward by the appellant.

In 2023, two appeals were heard and both were subsequently dismissed, as were an appeal heard in 2022 and another in 2021.

Only in 2020 were two appeals partly successful. In each case, the developments – at Bartam Court and adjacent to Tin Can Hill – went ahead but with modifications.

‘We have to be accountable’

City councillors who spoke on Monday agreed that the current system is being abused and the fee should go up to combat that.

However, there was concern about what councillor Cat McGurk called the “sticker shock” of Warburton’s proposed $5,750 fee.

“We do still, as a city, have to be accountable to our residents, and that’s part of what the development appeal process is about,” said McGurk.

“At the same time … I think we should be discouraging people from frivolous complaints.”

“I would just like to see that fee come down to something a little more reasonable,” said councillor Ryan Fequet.

“Whether it’s $500 or $5,000 I think you’re going to get rid of, likely, a lot of the people who are maybe using the process in a way they’re not supposed to.”

Mayor Rebecca Alty suggested $2,500 would represent recovery of roughly 50 percent of the city’s costs when handling appeals.

That proposal appeared to have broad backing from council. It will come forward for a formal vote early next month, after which city staff will begin work on the change.

“We’re not removing accountability,” said Warburton.

“It’s just injecting some cost reality into a process that costs everybody else a massive amount of time and money to deal with these appeals.”