City eyes higher fees for urban sprawl

The City of Calgary is proposing suburban housing developers pay higher fees to cover the cost of city-delivered services such as water and sewers.

A proposed new five year development agreement would result in developers shouldering more of the cost of servicing new communities - costs developers say will be passed on to consumers who buy homes in new suburbs, boosting new home prices by several thousand dollars.

The levy will double to more than $15,000 per house.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the higher fees better reflect the cost of bringing services like roads, sewers, water and police to those communities. Right now he says new communities actually cost the city millions of dollars.

"Every single new house costs $10,000 to $15,000 more than we ever get back in the taxes on that house and we build 5,000 of them every year." he said. "So we can't do it any more. We have to come up with an agreement that is more fair so that we can pay for water and sewer and transit and roads."

The proposed agreement will go to a council committee next Wednesday.

The Urban Development Institute which represents Calgary developers says it will not comment on the proposal immediately.