FILE PHOTO - Tobiano residents are petitioning the Thompson Nicola Regional District's decision to hand over park fee collection to private developers.

(DARREN RATHWELL / iNFOnews.ca)

Tobiano residents are calling for oversight of the company that owns the community after the Thompson Nicola Regional District gave up fee collection for the developer in October.

More than 170 residents of the small resort community above Kamloops Lake signed a petition asking the regional district to rescind its previous decision, claiming there was no consultation "of any kind" with the public before the vote to give Diverse Properties Ltd. control of its fee collection.

In October, the regional district repealed a policy which required staff to oversee Tobiano's taxation requirement each year. The regional district would examine the budget requirement for its street lighting, parks and trails, then collect fees from homeowners through property taxes.

Instead of maintaining those services on its own, the regional district would then pass the money over to Tobiano's owners to handle the services.

The practice began in 2011 and continued until October 2022. Regional district staff called the tax arrangement "unusual," partly because it continued for more than a decade and because the park land and street lighting is property of Diverse, not the regional district.

In October, regional district board voted to pull their involvement out of the fee collection entirely beginning this year. In effect, elected officials had given a private company oversight for some of the area's tax collection.

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Scott Hildebrand, chief administrative officer of the regional district, said it's not possible for the board to reverse its decision.

The board will consider what to do with the petition at its upcoming May 18 meeting, and Hildebrand expects directors will have questions.

"We can't revert back and just make everything as it was, but we could certainly explore a new service," he said. "The trickiness would be in order for us to set up a service anywhere in the regional district, we need to own the land. We don't."

He said regional district staff has met with Tobiano residents to discuss what can be done since the fee structure was changed.

The resort community, which hosts a golf course and a marina, had just 410 residents at the time of the 2021 census. Tobiano is a roughly 30 kilometre drive west of Kamloops, largely consisting of single family homes on what used to be ranch lands above Kamloops Lake.

It's not clear how many people didn't sign the petition, but organizer Carole Mains said they took only one signature per property, representing more than half the community.

It's also not clear how much Diverse is attempting to raise its fees, but the petition presented to the regional district claims the developer is "profiteering" and homeowners "continue to experience... an overall abuse of power."

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The company has tried and failed to have the regional district raise its fees for years, according to the October staff report.

The petition claims the regional district has had "difficulties" in getting Tobiano owners to meet "standards of accountability and transparency" for its use of tax dollars, according to documents residents obtained from the regional district. iNFOnews.ca has not seen these documents.

According to the October staff report, Diverse wanted $160,000 per year until 2027 to fund its infrastructure services.

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Diverse announced the fee structure change to homeowners via an email on Oct. 1, 2022, five days before the regional district voted.

"This is a change we are excited about as it will provide homeowners with more transparency and allow us to provide you with more detailed financial reporting about where your (Tobiano Resort Association) fees are being spent," the email read.

Although Diverse refers to Tobiano as a resort association, which operates similar to a local government, the province doesn't list Tobiano as a registered Resort Association. 

The Oct. 6 regional district meeting was the final board meeting before the 2022 municipal election and the inauguration of a new board of directors.

Diverse Properties Ltd. did not respond to a request for comment.

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