An access to information request for tens of thousands of documents from 91Ô­´´ Township has been quashed by an adjudicator because it was too broad and too difficult to fulfill.

An Oct. 29 decision by Elizabeth Vranjkovic of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner said that the Township can disregard a request that would have encompassed as many as 200,000 documents, and which would have taken Township staff about 7,200 hours to fulfill.

The request for information, made under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, was sent to the Township in September of this year.

The 11-part request was aimed at records and communications to and from the Township, between Nov. 1, 2022 and July 1, 2024, about community amenity contributions (CACs).

Among other requests, it aimed to find "All records of considerations used to determine the amounts of [CACs] charged to developers and landowners in relation to rezoning or redevelopment applications," and "Records of all collection and use of [CAC] charges including amounts received and expenditures made from the reserve funds [sic] any person, organization, corporation, or public authority."

CACs are funds from developers that local governments use for civic projects like community centres, pools, libraries, or other amenities. Unlike the similar development cost charges (DCCs), which pay for things like roads, sidewalks, and streetlights, CACs are not standardized under provincial legislation.

The request for info came from a family-held group of companies developing land in the Township, but the adjudicator's decision does not name the company.

The Township argued that it should be able to disregard the request, because it is overly broad, and because it would cause "unreasonable interference" with the Township's operations.

A preliminary search of the Township's databases found 72,239 items indexed under "CACs" or "community amenity contributions," and 136,911 partially indexed items. There were 203 separate development applications involved.

"I find that this is an 'overwhelming' and 'inordinate' number of records so the request is excessively broad," Vranjkovic wrote in her decision.

She also noted that the estimated amount of time to process the information, redacting some details for privacy reasons, would have taken at least 7,200 hours for Township staff.

The Township has offered to provide the company with some "core information relating to CACs" and the company has proposed to narrow its request. Vranjkovic said that her decision does not stop either side from going ahead with those steps.

The Township is currently in a legal dispute with Lorval Developments and G&T Martini Holdings – companies that were working to build a large film studio near 216 Street and 80 Avenue – about CACs. The Township claimed in a court filing earlier this fall that CACs are a form of voluntary payment, while Lorval Developments has argued in a petition to the courts that the Township has no right to charge such fees under B.C. law.

The 91Ô­´´ Advance Times reached out to Lorval Developments, but a representative said they could not comment on whether or not the firm had launched the FOI requests.