Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, for building a smart city on the eastern waterfront, has been considering for a proposal to take not only a share of Toronto property tax, but is also asking for a portion of increased land revenue as well as development fee, The Toronto Star reported on Friday.
Quoting a document obtained by it, Star reported that Sidewalk Labs is intending to begin an argument around its entitlement to a have a part of rise in land value on the entire city and is also entitled to have a cut of developer charges and of increased tax revenue on all land of the city.
The amount of portion which Sidewalk has been intending to take from the Toronto, would estimated to be about $6 billion over 30 years, and if not been given to Sidewalk, is initially the right of city to have it, according to the Star.
Sidewalk Labs is aiming to make development in cities to make them more sustainable and affordable utilizing the related technologies, but to its project in Toronto, which in its beginning was applauded by saying that it as a mean for innovation, has now been facing significant opposition. And that is similar to what the Amazon faced in New York City which eventually led the company to drop its plans. Also like in New York City, local politicians have not only been questioning about the intentions of the company in the project but are also influencing the company to make special consideration.
Earlier in October 2018, Sidewalk Labs, upon the concerns of local officials about the use of data collected of public places, the company had committed not to control the data collected there, but in presence of that commitment, at the advisory committee of the project, a prominent privacy expert opted to quit and call the proposal as not acceptable, the Star reported.
