A Wellington North resident, who has been continually battling with council over its handling of development charges in the township, called on council to consider whether it followed proper procedures when issuing development charge rebates after the township was forced to pass a new bylaw earlier this year.
The township paid out slightly more than $80,000 in development charge rebates to reflect a lower charge in a new bylaw passed in May.
Resident Jens Dam claims the refunds were paid without council consent. He has also launched an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) appeal on how the township handled its recent development charge bylaw, claiming it should not have been retroactive to the original bylaw’s passage. The appeal will be heard in late January.
The appeal was launched despite a libel lawsuit threatened against him by a township lawyer over public comments he made about the conduct of township staff. Dam said he has yet to hear anything from the township lawyer about the lawsuit.
Dam claims council’s new development charge bylaw should not have been retroactive and he has argued refunds were provided to developers without proper council consent.
Council approved its newest development charge bylaw in May following a study by Watson and Associates and a public meeting, both requirements under the province’s Development Charges Act.
Developers under the previous council saw a development charge of $17,500 for a single family home on municipal services.
When the new council took over, its members attempted to reduce the charges to $10,000, and moved to approve a new bylaw.
The process was appealed to the OMB by Dam, who won support from the OMB because the township had failed to hold required public meetings to approve a new bylaw.
The OMB ordered the township to rescind its newly approved development charges bylaw late last year.
Then council, at its meeting on May 28, gave final approval to a new development charges bylaw that replaced the previous one that was rescinded and that returned the charges to levels new councillors advocated for during the last municipal election.
The new fees have been set at $12,000 until the end of 2012 and will rise to $14,000 until Aug. 31, 2013 (development charges are levied to pay the costs of infrastructure related to new development).
The lawsuit against Dam was launched after the resident, in a public letter, took aim at chief executive officer Lori Heinbuch and Mayor Ray Tout for their alleged involvement in the refunds. He also mentioned chief building inspector Darren Jones.
The warning of a libel lawsuit came from township lawyer Robert Dowhan of Smith Valeriote. The letter sent by the lawyer asked Dam to make a public apology for his statements, which he declined to do.
No action has since been taken on the lawsuit, said Dam. At the Nov. 5 meeting Dam reiterated his claim the rebates were paid improperly and should be reimbursed back to the township.
“What will council do to get the taxpayer money back?” he asked council. “I hope council will do its legal duty to get the taxpayer money back.”
Dam also claimed some developers received discounts even though they never paid the full charge.
“It’s got to be dealt with by council,” he said.
Council did not respond to Dam’s claim at the meeting.
Mayor Ray Tout said the issue has been sent to the township lawyer to review and he declined comment on it.
In a related matter, township treasurer Mike Givens supplied council with a report on development charges collected up until the end of last year. The report showed the township had a balance of $892,000.
