Bruce County Council has held off for the time being on implementing development charges.
During Thursday’s Corporate Services Committee meeting, the council considered new recommendations from staff that were based on the Development Charges Background Study.
Director of Corporate Services and Treasurer Edward Henley presented the options to council.
“There’s an exemption for all rental housing now. There’s also an exemption for affordable housing, to be based upon a policy and approval by the CAO. Additionally, development charges would be reduced by 100% until the end of 2023.”
The purpose of development charges is to recover the capital costs associated with building development, whether residential or commercial.
Capital costs are in addition to the costs that would normally be constructed as part of a subdivision, such as internal roads, sewers, water mains, sidewalks, and streetlights.
The idea behind implementing the development charges is to have funding available for growth-related infrastructure.
Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau says that it makes sense to put development charges in place because the lower-tier municipalities and the county as a whole will have a hard time coming up with capital funding for those projects without increasing taxes.
“We have a funding gap when it comes to paying for the infrastructure we’re going to need to support the growth of the county in the coming years. And so by implementing these development charges that’ll give us the opportunity to pay for that growth without going to the tax levy.”
Jay Kirkland, who is the mayor of South Bruce Peninsula, says that after his municipality had implemented its own development charges, it had growth over the past few years, but worried about what may happen if builders didn’t want to contend with the charges.
“We’ve just come through five years of really good growth. What happens if the next five years because of interest rate[s], building does stop? We don’t know.”
The alternative option for the county would be to increase property taxes for everyone, whether it’s for residential property or for commercial property.
Arran-Elderslie Mayor Steve Hammell said that he would support a gradual, phased implementation, similar to what Grey County has put in place for their development charges.
If the County decides not to collect DCs and still intends to maintain the existing standard of services, then the County would have to raise property taxes by approximately 5.15%.
Council voted 4-3 in favour of deferring the by-law to a later date.