Airdrie council has approved Bylaw B-23/2025, overhauling the fees developers pay to fund major road, water and sewer infrastructure. The new levy rates—updated for the first time in eight years—take effect Sept. 1 and follow a two-year technical review.
“Generally, what off-site levies do is they make the development industry responsible for costs that they trigger,” said Rick Wiljamaa, P.Eng., Team Leader of Engineering Services. “So infrastructure that's required to support their developments are paid for by development, and it is not a responsibility of the taxpayer to provide that infrastructure for development that they don't see any benefit from specifically themselves.”
His response followed a question from Councillor Heather Spearman, who asked for a plain-language explanation of the bylaw’s purpose.
“I think there’s a lot of confusion around the fact in the legislation, these have nothing to do with school building or hospital building,” she said. “I think this is a really nice collaboration between industry and cost and growth and the future of Airdrie… Yes, we are not the cheapest levies in the province, but we are also doing some pretty incredible things at a very accelerated rate.”
Updated schedules, charges, and team support
Developers will pay updated infrastructure charges based on where and what they build. The new rates replace Airdrie’s previous off-site levy system under Bylaw B-11/2019, last amended in 2022. Schedules A and B have been rewritten to reflect ISL Engineering’s 2025 modelling. Schedule C has been removed entirely.
“These are the long awaited and much anticipated off-site levy bylaws,” Wiljamaa said.
From concept to bylaw: multi-phase overhaul began pre-COVID
City administration began work on a full off-site levy review before the COVID-19 pandemic. The process was formalized in 2021 when council endorsed a new funding and financing model.
“Substantial work has been completed to date,” said Wiljamaa. “The process was started pre-COVID when administration and BILD began contemplating how to update the City’s off-site levies… to include the area annexed in the 2012 annexation.”
Phase 1 created interim levies for newly annexed lands and was completed when council passed Bylaw B-39/2022 in November 2022. Phase 2 began in early 2023 and focused on establishing a uniform, citywide levy structure.
Between June 2023 and early 2025, administration met biweekly with BILD (The Building Industry and Land Development) Calgary Region—a collaboration Wiljamaa estimated at “approximately 40 times.” These meetings informed the rate structure and supporting documentation before council.
Developers consulted; no formal opposition submitted
Two public open houses were held on May 15 and 22 in council chambers.
“Attendees were largely land developers or individuals who work for land developers, such as engineering consultants,” Wiljamaa said.
Written feedback was submitted by BILD Calgary Region and Genesis Land Development Corp., both of which provided letters of support.
“We’ve had no official letters of opposition to this come in,” he told council. “At least one of them—one of the more prominent ones—did show up to the open house. Generally, they had similar feedback that we presented on the slide, similar concerns.”
According to the council report, “concerns were raised that increased levy rates may impact affordability.” Administration wrote that while this was a valid concern, “the levy rates reflect required growth funding, and subsidizing levies through the tax base would also affect affordability for all residents.”
In a letter included in the agenda package, BILD Calgary Region stated it supports the proposed updates to Bylaw B-11/2019 through Bylaw B-23/2025.
“We acknowledge that updating off-site levies is complex and includes many variables, assumptions, and perspectives,” the letter stated. “While there are some outstanding items to be monitored and reviewed in the future, BILD believes the process was fair and transparent, and that the bylaw before Council is a significant improvement on the current levy framework.”
BILD also cited the City’s “strong willingness to be flexible” if conditions change, adding, “We are optimistic that our ongoing collaboration will continue.”
New rate structure: $304,000 to $529,000 per hectare
The updated levy structure sets minimum and maximum hard infrastructure charges at $304,000 and $529,000 per hectare, respectively. Rates vary by land sector and infrastructure type.
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Water and transportation: uniform citywide
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Wastewater and stormwater: assigned by benefitting area
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Undesignated sectors: marked “N/A” until activated
“You would be looking at about $15,000 per house on the low end,” Wiljamaa said, assuming roughly 20 homes per hectare.
The city’s updated benefiting area map shows the quarter sections expected to develop within the 15-year planning horizon.
“Let’s say one of those areas that presently show an N/A in them… were to come in next week with a development application,” Wiljamaa added. “We would initiate a bylaw revision at that point calculating what infrastructure is required to support that area, and then that area would be established [with] an off-site levy rate.”
Mayor presses comparison to Calgary
Mayor Peter Brown questioned how Airdrie’s new levy rates compare to Calgary’s and whether delayed increases had left the city behind.
“So the developer pays in Calgary, does the arterial road?” Brown asked.
“I can’t tell you what a four-lane arterial road would translate into a levy for Calgary,” Wiljamaa said. “I can tell you what that translates out of our transportation levy, and that’s approximately $125,000 per hectare… That would mean that the minimum for us… would be $125,000 less than that $304,000.”
“City of Calgary develops much faster than us… For them to have a developer build an arterial road, let’s say 24th Street… they would all basically build out in the same time frame. For us, we don’t generally have that,” he added.
“Calgary, as a specialized municipality, negotiates its off-site levy directly with BILD and includes inflation in its bylaw,” Wiljamaa said. “In Airdrie, we model inflation internally as part of our annual financial calculations.”
Brown then asked how the city accounted for inflation in its modelling.
“If we’re thinking about a lift station that needs to be built in 2030… we would take the cost estimate derived by the engineers today, apply a three per cent inflation factor to it for five years… and use that as the basis of the levy calculation,” a consultant with the presenting team stated.
“So do you think that this is fair and reasonable based on numbers that you’ve seen comparatively from other municipalities?” Brown asked.
“I believe that the process that was followed is fair and reasonable,” the consultant replied, “and I think the levies in the context of that table are competitive in the region.”
Petrow confirms built-in flexibility
Councillor Tina Petrow asked whether Alberta municipalities could move toward a standardized off-site levy model.
“The MGA [Municipal Government Act] outlines the process for us… It is not descriptive on exactly what needs to be included in transportation or wastewater,” Wiljamaa said. “Each municipality has its own set of priorities, its own set of projects.”
“That’s fair,” Petrow replied.
“So 10.2 is what would cover that in here?” she asked.
“Yes, you are correct,” Wiljamaa said. “As a minimum, we would be reviewing this bylaw in a three-year process.”
In its written submission, BILD Calgary Region requested that “a mechanism [be] built into the current Bylaw that would allow for reduction in levy rates through a simplified bylaw amendment when those savings are realized.”
The administration report confirmed that approach. “If grant funding requests are successful, they will make an expedient update to the levy rates and return to Council to amend the bylaw,” the report stated.
Council supports process and collaboration
Councillor Ron Chapman asked if most developers in Airdrie were members of BILD.
“There are a couple of developers that are not members of BILD,” Wiljamaa said. “One of the more prominent ones did show up to the open house… Generally they had the similar feedback that we presented on the slide, similar concerns.”
Councillor Al Jones said he had initially been concerned about how the review would unfold.
“I like the fact that it’s movable,” he said. “So this is kind of like the base, and then as scenarios change, we can adjust.”
“So would that come before council?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Wiljamaa confirmed. “The bylaw would be amended, and that would have to be adopted by council.”
“I think the entire group—BILD, the builders and developers and yourselves—did an excellent job of collaborating this,” Jones said. “Really well done.”
Budget implications and implementation timeline
According to the council report, the new rates will shape the city’s capital plans, reserve forecasting, and debt limit calculations.
“The updated levy rates will be incorporated into future capital and operating budgets, directly impacting projected revenue streams used to calculate the City’s debt limits and reserve balances for growth-related infrastructure,” it states.
“By aligning levy revenues with eligible capital projects, the City can reduce its reliance on tax-supported debt financing.”
Bylaw B-23/2025 received all three readings on June 17. The new rates take effect Sept. 1, 2025. They will apply to all new Subdivision Servicing Agreements going forward. Any future changes must be approved by council.
The administration report also flagged long-term risks to Airdrie’s non-residential growth targets.
“Off-site levy review puts two competing governance principles against each other — that of cost recovery associated with growth, and economic prosperity through non-residential development,” it stated. “Council may have to consider other actions to instigate non-residential development, depending on market reception to the revised rates.”
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