Civic Addressing Service to RM of Sherwood

CONCLUSION

The RM of Sherwood has requested that the City of Regina provide technical assistance to RM administration in the development and implementation of civic addressing of properties within the RM. The City will prepare and enter into a service agreement with the RM of Sherwood to supply/manage the assignment of civic addressing on behalf of the RM of Sherwood.

At the May 18, 2017 meeting of the Sherwood Regina Administrative Technical Committee (SRATC), the RM asked the City to explore providing civic addressing assignment services to the RM under a service agreement. City administration met internally with relevant department(s) and determined that capacity was available to provide the service. The terms under which an agreement to provide civic addressing services to the RM were developed and provided to the RM at the SRATC on November 16, 2017. The RM is prepared to proceed with an agreement for the service.

City Administration seeks Council approval to draft an agreement for street naming and addressing service provision to the RM of Sherwood.  This request allows for coordination and consistency of the naming of streets and parks between the City and RM.

BACKGROUND

The RM of Sherwood and the City of Regina have been meeting regularly under the terms of reference of the Sherwood Regina Memorandum of Understanding whereby both parties agreed to work cooperatively to achieve common objectives in a forum for inter-municipal cooperation. At the May 18, 2017 meeting of the SRATC, the RM requested assistance with the naming of streets and roadways in the RM. Administration has considered this request and determined it has the capacity to be able to enter into an agreement to provide this service to the RM.

Currently, landmark, highway numbers and general directions typically describe lands in the RM of Sherwood. The Province of Saskatchewan has made it a requirement that all land must have an address. The RM of Sherwood has asked the City of Regina for assistance to help it meet this requirement.

DISCUSSION

There are many benefits in coordinating and addressing rural lands outside the City based on the address grid for the City of Regina. Consistency and region-wide coordination will provide greater clarity for emergency services and first responders as well as the public. It will also aid in transitioning should neighboring lands be brought into the City boundaries.

The address grid has been in place for the City of Regina for many years. Extending this grid to the limits of the RM of Sherwood is a reasonable task that can be provided within existing business as usual processes and resources. The work includes assigning addresses to each parcel of land and geocoding the RM lands. Once this has been completed it will provide much easier methods of locating properties. In summary, the opportunity provides:

·                     Consistency – addressing is continued outward from the City of Regina into the RM of Sherwood and thus avoiding duplicate street names.

·                     Boundary Alteration – as the City expands and land transition to urban development over time, the addressing will fit into the current grid system. This will provide consistent addressing within the City of Regina. With the correct addresses assigned to parcels, the job of boundary alteration and the change of municipal jurisdiction are streamlined with less disruption to the property owner.

·                     Cooperation – maintains a good relationship with the RM of Sherwood.

·                     Communication – Emergency services will benefit from having identifiable addresses. There is significant benefit to regional emergency services, including Regina Fire department, RCMP and Ambulance services, and mitigates the difficulty of finding rural properties

·                     City assets - The City will be able to assign addresses to water meters and other City of Regina assets that are outside of the city limits. This helps with the asset management system, which is largely based on addressing.

·                     Business-as-usual – the request made by the RM is absorbable within the Geospatial and other relevant City branches and would use existing processes and resources.

City administration is prepared to begin drafting an agreement to provide civic addressing services to the RM of Sherwood on a cost recovery basis.

RECOMMENDATION IMPLICATIONS

Financial Implications

The agreement will be based on a cost recovery model as a fee for service. There will be an upfront setup charge of about $5,000 and an annual ongoing maintenance fee of approximately $700.

The length of the agreement will extend in perpetuity but allow for either party to terminate with reasonable notice. The contract will also provide for a review of entire terms and conditions every 5 years. Annually, the City and the RM will review the cost of providing the services and adjust as needed to ensure full cost recovery on the service being provided.

Meetings will be held with the RM to review any special requests requiring more resources and the associated fee for providing that additional service. 

Environmental Implications

None with respect to this report.

Policy and/or Strategic Implications

The Cities Act addresses providing services outside of a city under miscellaneous powers, under Section 33(1) of the Act, a City may provide any service or thing that it provides in all or part of the city in another municipality with the agreement of that other municipality.

Design Regina: The Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 2013-48 directs that the City strengthen lines of communication between the RM and City in addressing issues for mutual benefit (3.9.2) and work with regional partners to explore strategic planning initiatives (3.2) such as sharing of knowledge, staff resources, and other measures in support of strategies supporting regional growth. 

Other Implications

None with respect to this report.

Accessibility Implications

None with respect to this report.

COMMUNICATIONS

None with respect to this report.

DELEGATED AUTHORITY

The recommendations in this report require City Council approval.

Report prepared by:

Juliana Wafula, Manager, Geospatial Solutions