Latest news with #citycouncil
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Prairie Village residents show mixed reactions toward city hall rebuild
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — The City of Prairie Village wants to rebuild a new city hall on a former church site. They also want renovate and expand the police department and municipal court at the current building, with a total price around $30 million. Shawnee police in touch with Abarca; missing persons case still active Part of the project includes building the new Build to LEED standards, a framework that's used to build and operate in a sustainable manner, according to Prairie Village's website. Here is the following breakdown of the costs: Land purchase – $4.5 million Police department/municipal court renovations – $7.5 million City hall construction – $18 million The project requires $27 million to be borrowed over 30 years. It will be paid through existing taxes and other existing revenue sources. There are no proposed increases to tax rates, so there will not be a public vote. During the more than an hour long public comment portion of the meeting, some residents were in favor of the new Build and LEED certification. They called it a sustainable investment that will benefit future generations. People who opposed said they're concerned over increased property values, and most of all, it's too expensive of a project for them not to have the ability to vote. One council member responded to some comments. 'Let the residents vote. You have the power, make it happen, what are you afraid of… losing? I know this is probably falling on deaf ears, but just maybe you will decide to do the right thing,' one resident said during the meeting. 'I'm pleased the council is taking a long view with this. We've all benefited from the long line of city leaders and council members who did just that. The LEED Platinum certification would be in the long term best interest of Prairie Village citizens,' another resident said during the meeting. 'If there's uncontrolled spending, then I would like you to quit cherry picking numbers that fit that narrative and tell me where it is,' said Councilman Dave Robinson. Man charged in shooting of Lee's Summit police officer City councilmembers passed a motion to commit to 'Gold' LEED standards for the new city hall but revisit some on the platinum items to add in the future. The design is locked in now. The city council will still need to vote to issue the bonds. That's scheduled for the next council meeting on June 16. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Globe and Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Montreal pushes on with new short-term rental rules despite pushback
Montreal is forging ahead with new rules banning many short-term rentals for nine months a year, hoping to alleviate a housing crunch and strike a blow in a lengthy battle against unauthorized listings. City council in March passed a new bylaw that will allow people to rent their principal residences for periods of 31 days or less only during peak tourist season, between June 10 and Sept. 10. They must also obtain a $300 permit from the city and meet previous requirements to register with the province. Full-time Airbnb units run by commercial enterprises are still allowed in parts of the city, but are restricted to a few streets and areas. Two years after fatal fire, Montreal tightens rules on short-term rentals including Airbnb Despina Sourias, a city councillor in charge of housing, said previous rules were hard to enforce because they allowed some property owners to avoid getting fined by stating a rental property was their main residence. The new rules, she said, will shift the burden of proof onto listing owners instead of inspectors. 'Before it was like, we have to go out and catch people, we've got to roam the streets,' she said in a phone interview. Banning short-term rentals in principal residences for nine months a year makes issuing fines much easier, Sourias said. 'You don't have your permit, you get a ticket,' she said. 'If you're doing it outside the time that you're allowed to do it, you get a ticket.' The new rules are the next step in a progressive crackdown across the province that began after seven people died in a fire in an Old Montreal building in March 2023. Six of the victims had been staying in Airbnb rentals, which the mayor confirmed were not allowed in that part of the city. After the fire, the provincial government tabled new legislation requiring platforms like Airbnb to only display ads that include a tourism licence number and expiry date. The city also hired a squad of inspectors to try to crack down. Before the new bylaw, it was easier for people to rent their main residences for short periods, such as during a vacation. That led some people to use different schemes to falsely declare a full-time rental as a principal residence, and forcing inspectors into lengthy investigations to prove otherwise, the city said. Montreal's mayor said in January that despite the provincial law, more than half of the 4,000 units on short-term rental platforms did not comply with the rules. The new rules have received pushback from the province's tourism department, as well as from platforms such as Airbnb, who claim that they will hurt the city's economy and do little to improve housing affordability. Alex Howell, Airbnb's policy lead from Canada, called on the city to reverse what she called an 'extreme and short-sighted' rule change. 'This poorly thought-out decision will drive up hotel prices and make travel more expensive for Quebecers – nearly 140,000 of whom stayed in an Airbnb in Montreal last year – and weakens Montreal's ability to attract visitors for major events that fuel tourism throughout the year,' she said in a statement. The province's tourism department said the new rules would not put an end illegal rentals or the housing crisis. 'On the contrary, they could even worsen the situation by pushing more operators into illegality, returning Montreal to the Wild Web of before our reforms,' it said in a statement to The Canadian Press. But David Wachsmuth, the Canada Research Chair in urban governance at McGill University, believes Montreal may succeed where other cities have failed at cracking down on illegal rentals. He said platforms leave it up to cities to track down rule-breakers, which forces municipal officials to 'play detective' and figure out who's actually a principal resident and who isn't. He said enforcement will be easier under these rules, because anyone running an Airbnb outside the designated full-time rental areas can be automatically fined outside the summer season.
BBC News
19 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Works starts on new Coventry £2.3m school sports hall
Work has begun on a new £2.3m four-court sports hall at a secondary stand-alone sports area at Lyng Hall School on Blackberry Lane, Coventry, will include four badminton-sized courts as well as a weights room, a fitness suite and changing development was under way as extra sports facilities were needed to accommodate a "growing number of students", the city council of the facility was due to be completed by late 2025, a spokesperson for the authority added. Councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu said the development would "offer advanced facilities" for students to learn and for staff to teach at the school."It's going to be a huge asset for whole school community upon completion," she said. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Cattle have roamed Cambridge's city centre for hundreds of years. GPS is keeping the tradition going
The sight of cattle grazing in the parks and open spaces around Cambridge is as much a part of the scenery as the ancient colleges that make up the city's famous university. But the tradition that dates to medieval times nearly fell victim to budget cuts this year until officials found a 21st century solution – GPS-guided collars. Farmers have had the right to herd their livestock onto public land in Cambridge for centuries, and each spring and summer around 100 cattle roam around the city's medieval commons, fens and greens – including Sheep's Green, where Charles Darwin collected insects. They go about their grazing alongside merchants, tourists and scholars strolling through the University of Cambridge, and they've become a city attraction. But cattle also have a tendency to wander, and the Cambridge cows have been known to fall into the River Cam, which winds through city. Every year around four of the animals end up in the water, either from slipping, running into each other or being spooked. There's little risk of them drowning since the Cam is shallow and cattle are surprisingly good swimmers. But once they tumble in they can't climb back up the muddy riverbank, so they stand and wait to be rescued. That can take hours and requires a specialized farmhand called a pinder, plus usually the fire department as well. The city council spends £10,000 ($18,600) annually on a 24-hour pinder service to fish cattle out of the river. That's in addition to the £28,000 the council pays every year to maintain gates, grids and fences for grazing. The total outlay is far more than the £4,000 the city collects in annual grazing fees from farmers. Last November, city council faced a financial crunch and needed to find £6-million in savings from its £71-million budget. As part of the cuts, councillors proposed dropping the 24-hour pinder service and leaving it to farmers to pick up the tab. Meet SwagBot, the AI-powered robot cattle herder preventing soil degradation The proposal caused an outcry from residents and farmers, and put the future of the grazing into doubt. Farmers argued that forcing them to pay for the service would make using the commons uneconomical and they'd have to pull their cattle. The backlash led councillors to consider an alternative. They decided to fit the cattle with solar-powered GPS collars that emit high-pitch sounds as the animals approach a virtual fence. If they persist, the collar sends a mild electric pulse to train them to turnaround. The virtual boundary can be adjusted with an app, which farmers can also use to track the whereabouts of their cattle. The GPS system, developed by a Norwegian company called Nofence, has been rolled out on a trial basis. It costs a fraction of the on-call pinder. 'It works really well for what it's got to do,' said Mark Drew, who keeps 30 Hereford cattle on the commons and another 40 outside of town. 'We're tenant farmers. We don't own a lot of land ourselves, so we have to get grass wherever we can. It's nice to have a presence in Cambridge and it's not too expensive,' he said, adding that he pays the city around £50 a year per head. 'Our cattle tend to work quite well with the public as well because they are quite quiet.' Mr. Drew said a major benefit of the GPS system is that city officials can easily adjust the virtual fence when needed. For example, they can change the enclosure to protect newly planted flowers and gardens. 'Once they've flowered then they turn the fence off and the cattle can then go over those areas.' He's had far too many late-night experiences rescuing cattle from the water. One from his herd got stuck in the river near Darwin College a couple of years ago and managed to climbed onto a small island. 'It couldn't get back to the common because there was a vertical bank. So we had to, with the help of the fire service, lift it back across the the water channel.' It took most of the day to get the animal back on dry land, Mr. Drew said. 'If by using the collars we can avoid the cattle going near those watercourses in the first place, we can save all the hassle and aggravation of that.' Opinion: If supply management has to be killed, Canada's dairy industry will have to follow New Zealand's lead Angelika von Heimendahl, a local veterinarian who keeps 10 of her 50 cattle on the commons, said it's not clear how many cattle the collars have saved from the river. 'We're not 100 per cent sure whether it's dogs chasing them, or whether it just happens. If it's dogs, then the collars are not going to help.' But for now, she said, the collars have worked well and Cantabrigians and cattle continue to live side by side. Although it's people, she added, who give her greater concern. 'Cattle are still animals that need to chew their cuds and lie down and be able to relax. And I think people sometimes really push their luck how close they go, or try and touch them.'
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Regina city council to hold special meeting
Regina Watch WATCH: Regina city council is set to hold a special meeting next week to discuss the future of a facility at the REAL district.
