Skip to content

Local improvement requests

Are you interested in having your back alley paved? Does your street need a new sidewalk? Maybe you feel your neighbourhood needs more street lighting? These are examples of Local Improvements. Any property owner may initiate local improvements.

Local improvements vs. regular maintenance

The City of Airdrie replaces infrastructure in your community which has reached the end of its lifecycle (i.e. sidewalk concrete which has come to its natural end) with no additional tax imposed to residents.

The difference between local improvements and regular municipal infrastructure is that a local improvement is a project that Council considers to be of greater benefit to an area of the municipality than to the whole municipality.

A group of property owners may petition Council for local improvements above and beyond regular maintenance. The properties affected by the improvement are responsible for paying for the improvement by an imposed tax.

Requesting a local improvement

A group of property owners may petition Council for a local improvement. A sufficient petition is one signed by two thirds of the property owners who must also represent at least half of the value of the assessed parcels of land on which the local improvement tax will be imposed. The Municipal Government Act outlines rules and requirements for Petitions and it is recommended to read through this to ensure your petition is valid. This petition must be filed with the Chief Administrative Officer at City Hall.

Where does it go from there?

Once a petition is received by the Chief Administrative Officer, a declaration must be made to Council or the Minister within 30 days of the date the petition is filed as to whether the petition is sufficient or insufficient. Affected property owners are notified whether a petition is valid or not.

If a petition is not valid, no further action takes place. If a petition is valid, Council will consider the request and either direct Administration to prepare a local improvement plan or deny the request based on the information provided to them.

In the event Council directs the Administration to prepare a local improvement plan, the City of Airdrie will then send a Notice to property owners affected by the local improvement and the subsequent local improvement tax.

Property Owners have 30 days from the date of mailing of this notice to send a second petition to the Chief Administrative Officer objecting to the local improvement. If the objecting petition is valid, the City would declare the original petition to be insufficient and City Council would not proceed with the local improvement.

If a valid petition against the local improvement is not filed within 30 days of mailing the notices, City Council may undertake the local improvement and impose a local improvement tax.

Prior to Council proceeding with the improvement, a Local Improvement Tax Bylaw would be required authorizing The City to charge a local improvement tax on all land that will benefit from the improvement.

View public improvement petition form (PDF)