Mapleton council should tread carefully with plans to open up their development charges bylaw for revision on the basis of a single complaint. At the June 28 meeting, council directed staff to consider options to reduce development charges for projects such as workshop construction in rural areas.
Council was reacting to correspondence from Mapleton resident Elmer Bearinger, whose family operates a small welding/repair shop in the Moorefield area. Bearinger had applied for a building permit for a planned new workshop but was stunned to learn the project would be subject to $35,000 in development charges.
Certainly the township needs to do a better job of communicating the existence of development charges and their potential to significantly impact the cost of a project. It appears Bearinger was caught by surprise on the charges after the building permit for the project had been processed. It would seem a simple enough matter to point out to those permit applicants to whom charges would apply that the township does impose development charges and provide the rates. Developers can take it from there to determine potential charges.
Bearinger’s situation is complicated by the fact his operation is at least following the required procedure for business expansion, while many in Mapleton apparently just proceed without any regard for regulation.
“The biggest thing is they were doing it right and there’s so many business in our municipality that are operating illegally … and some of them brag about it, but we didn’t see it happening,” said Mayor Neil Driscoll at the meeting.
If disregard for building regulations in the township is that widespread, perhaps that’s an issue that needs to be tackled, perhaps even retroactively, before development charge rates are revisited. Not much point in having charges of any kind if you can’t enforce payment.
While the Bearingers’ situation seems unreasonable at first glance, development charge rates were set after considerable study and it would have been a matter of simple multiplication at the time to determine how much they would impact projects of this nature. The situation was foreseeable. It’s also hard to reconcile a township desperately juggling its budget each year to pay for infrastructure maintenance with one reluctant to collect payments designated for exactly that from local businesses.
Development charges hit many types of construction projects hard, and council may have started down a slippery slope by agreeing to considering exception for one.
Patrick Raftis
