Council introduces incentive to create more residential lots

Cold Lake, AB – Cold Lake Council voted to establish a program that will incentivize the creation of new serviced lots that are available for the development of residential dwellings.

“We are starting to feel the pinch brought on by increased economic activity,” Mayor Mattice said. “Housing opportunities are beginning to thin out, and rents and prices are slowly starting to increase. We are working to stay ahead of this issue as much as possible to maintain affordability in our community. One way we can help to maintain the affordability we have is to make sure that lots are available for new homes to be built upon.”

Administration showed Council that over the past 10 years, the inventory of serviced residential lots ready for new homes to be built has fallen from 514 in 2015 to 155 at the start of 2026.

“When our local economy is running hot, we typically will see 100 to 150 homes built in a year,” Mayor Bob Mattice said. “In recent years, that number has been sitting at about 30 housing starts a year, but once things get busy, we can go through the existing vacant residential lot inventory extremely quickly.”

The Residential Lot Development Incentive Policy will allow developers to claim a rebate of 100% of the municipal property taxes on newly developed, vacant residential lots for up to seven years. Property owners would be able to prequalify a subdivision for the program, which would provide the rebate on the new lots once all the conditions of the subdivision approval and development permit are met.

The property would remain eligible for the rebate for the seven-year period after completion, or until the lot is sold, or a building permit for the property is issued.

“Our intention here is to partially derisk the creation of new lots so that developers in the community have a stronger business case to hold a larger inventory,” Mattice said. “Ultimately, when the local economy and real estate market are working efficiently, everyone benefits.” 

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