Owner of 61-year-old home ordered to pay fee intended for new developments

The City of Winnipeg's decision to slap a growth fee on a 61-year-old home resulted in a first for the municipality — an appeal against the new revenue-generating mechanism.

For the past 10 years, Vitaliy Yatsevych has owned a North Kildonan home that was built in 1957 on a well-established block of Gillmore Street, east of Henderson Highway.

Late last year, he filed plans to add a bedroom to his home as well as a secondary suite. The city then handed him a bill for $5,765.90 in growth fees, which are supposed to be applied to new developments at the fringes of the city.

"In our case, it's in a mature neighbourhood, one of the oldest in North Kildonan," Yatsevych said at city on Monday, where he came before council's property committee to appeal the growth-fee charge,

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Neither his home nor the neighbourhood are new, extensions should not be subject to the fees and the city has yet to decide whether to apply its growth fees to infill housing projects, he said.

City council's property committee, however, learned Tuesday that part of the work at Yatsevych's home is considered a new development because the secondary suite amounts to a new residence.

As well, city planning, property and development director John Kiernan told councillors the home falls within a secondary planning area, automatically making it eligible for growth fees.

Council's property committee voted to deny the appeal, while instructing city officials to strike the growth fees from the bedroom component of the project, thereby eliminating 50 to 60 per cent of the charges.

"What we can do?" Yatsevych said after the decision, relieved he will at least recoup no less than half of the growth-fee tab, which he has already paid. "At least it's something."