At this week’s Council Meeting, the Development Charges (DC) Background Study and By-Law with updated DCs for 2025 was approved.
Exemptions are available for eligible affordable housing development.
The updated Development Charges will come into effect on January 1, 2025.
What are Development Charges? In short, they are government fees charged to property owners / developers for new residential or commercial developments in our town. The charges assist the municipality and District in covering the costs required for services (not only water and sewer but sidewalks, fire and emergency services, programming) for the new development. Essentially, DC’s help protect taxpayers by having growth pay for growth.
As the municipality continues their commitment of “balanced growth,” the new DC By-Law includes exemptions for the construction of “secondary suites” on properties (i.e. in-law suites or apartments over a garage). Affordable housing continues to be exempt from development charges and additional rebates are also available. For more information on the Town’s Affordable Housing initiatives, please visit Huntsville.ca.
Council has opted to discount the amount of the residential development charge by 25% and phase in the change over a period of five (5) years with the discounted full charge coming into effect in 2029, allowing time for development to adjust to the price increase over time. For non-residential development, the full rate will be phased in over a period of five (5) years. The updated by-law includes charges that represent an increase of $1,160 per unit for single & semi-detached houses and an increase of $14.22 per square meter for non-residential construction in 2025. Development Charges will be indexed annually, using the non-residential building construction price index in the third quarter (Q3) of the preceding year.