Hillcrest property owners have rejected the city’s proposed local improvement charge, leaving council with no choice but to defeat the LIC.

“They’re stuck with the results of the vote,” acting city manager Mike Gau said this morning.

He spoke after results of the vote were released showing 94 of the 168 – or 55 per cent of – property owners voted against it.

The deadline for ballots to be submitted was last Tuesday.

As Gau explained, under the LIC bylaw, when there are more than 50 per cent ballots cast against an LIC, the project does not go ahead.

The city can revisit the bylaw after one year, he pointed out.

Under the city’s LIC policy, benefiting property owners pay for a portion of the surface work planned for an area.

The proposed LIC bylaw for the Hillcrest work provides for a 20-year amortization period.

That makes the lowest annual payment $172.86 (for some individual condo units) and the highest at $17,558.66 (a Yukon government property) based on an estimated interest rate of 6.25 per cent. The actual interest rate is set when the LIC is put in effect.

This LIC would have seen property owners in the Hillcrest neighbourhood on the hook for about $2 million of the estimated $17-million project that was slated for four phases between 2019 and 2021.

Gau noted officials had planned to apply to the federal and territorial governments if the LIC was approved for $15 million from the Small Communities Fund to help fund the project.

Along with the surface work partly covered by the LIC, the project would replace the aging water and sewer lines under the surface.

Planning work to rebuild the infrastructure and roads that were, for the most part, built in the 1950s, began in 2014 after the community members approached the city about renewing the infrastructure.

Numerous meetings and work to plan for it have happened in the years since.

As one resident argued to council during a recent public hearing though, the potential cost to property owners was never part of those discussions.

The city will now have to wait until any surface work and attached LIC is approved, which may now be at least a year away.

Gau said city staff could look at whether there’s any critical underground infrastructure in need of more immediate repair or upgrades, and perhaps do that work.

Outside of voting to defeat the LIC, it’s unclear how the city might move forward:

• whether the proposal may come back in a year, in which case another LIC vote would have to take place;

• whether the proposal may be altered and then come back;

• whether the plans will be scrapped entirely; or

• any other number of scenarios.

As Gau noted: “It’s early days.”

He stressed the city will keep talking to the Hillcrest Community Association and property owners about the project.

City staff will draft a report on the LIC and vote results for Monday’s meeting, with council then expected to vote to defeat it at its May 23 meeting.

From there, council may direct city staff on how to proceed.

Gau did point out that under the Municipal Act, council could vote to go ahead with the work without charging an LIC.

As he added, though, there’s fairness to be considered. Such a decision could be perceived as unfair in light of recent work in other neighbourhoods where benefiting property owners were charged an LIC.

Council has heard a number of arguments against the Hillcrest LIC in recent weeks, with more than a half dozen speaking out on the proposal at a public hearing during Monday’s council meeting.

Delegates against it have argued the charge would put a significant financial burden on residents, particularly those living on fixed or limited incomes.

The LIC process has also been described by those opposed as an “undemocratic” vote, with any unreturned ballots counted as a vote in favour.

Jim Gilpin, a former president of the association, offered a suggestion that if the LIC was rejected by property owners, the city should spend the next year working to come up with an improvement plan for the neighbourhood that would be more readily acceptable to residents.

That could then bring it back for consideration, Gilpin said.

Mayor Dan Curtis, in Faro for the Association of Yukon Communities’ annual conference, was unavailable for comment on the vote results.