WELLINGTON NORTH – Council here approved a new bylaw on Jan. 24 requiring developers to hand over a portion of development lands to the township for parkland and recreation space or face a fee.
The bylaw “provides more clarity around the entire parkland dedication process for council and developers,” CAO Mike Givens explained in an email to the Advertiser.
As a condition of development, the percentage of land conveyed to the township will be five per cent of a residential development’s net land area and for industrial, commercial and agriculture, the bylaw requires 2%.
A fee – known as a “cash in lieu of parkland fee” – will apply to developers not conveying parkland to the township.
This year, a developer will need to pay $2,000 – an increase of $1,000 from last year.
A previous recommendation set to go before council last December could have seen the fee increase to $7,500 for 2022, but a developer contested the jump, believing the township erred in its valuation of undeveloped land and thus thought the fee increase, based on land value, to be unreasonable.
Instead the fee will increase over the next two years, from $2,000 in 2022 to $4,000 in 2023 and finally to $7,500 in 2024.
Developers are able to obtain their own appraisal and dispute the township’s fee, according to Givens.
With the parkland bylaw passed, an amendment is required to a fees and charges bylaw to reflect the agreed-upon dollar figures.
That amendment is scheduled to go before council on Feb. 7.
