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If the City of Saskatoon grants a tax break to the company planning to build a hotel-office-condominium complex on River Landing the move would be unprecedented, says the city’s director of planning and development.

Alan Wallace told councillors at a planning committee meeting on Monday that the city has never supported a public plaza on private land that’s built and maintained by a private company.

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Developers can currently apply for tax rebates for downtown residential buildings and associated parking. Office buildings and other parking lots are not eligible, but the River Landing developer wants an exception.

The city administration recommends the River Landing developer be given a five-year tax abatement for each phase of the project and that future property taxes be returned to it in exchange for its operation of a plaza with “reasonable” public access.

“At what point are we determining the definition of reasonable?” Coun. Tiffany Paulsen asked city staff. “My definition of reasonable is virtually unlimited because there are walking paths and things like that.”