Wellington North has updated its development charges (DC) bylaw, resulting in increases to urban development and decreases to rural development.
Council reviewed the changes in a special meeting on June 14 with consultant John Murphy of DFA Infrastructure International Inc.
Municipalities are required to review and update their DC bylaws every five years.
Wellington North is expected to grow by nearly 5,400 units by 2041. To afford infrastructure upgrades for growth, the municipality can impose DCs to offset costs based on the services required.
Total municipal-wide services – including administration, parks, recreation, fire protection and roads – have decreased for most dwelling development. Whereas total urban services – water and wastewater – have increased across the board.
Rural single dwelling development will now pay $2,955 (down from $4,228) in development charges per unit, while urban single dwelling development will pay $18,279 (up from $15,344) per unit.
Other residential changes include:
– semi-detached dwellings: $2,955 for rural areas (increase from $2,693) and $18,279 for urban areas (increase from $13,809);
– apartments with two or more bedrooms: $1,917 for rural areas (decrease from $2,724) and $11,861 for urban areas (increase from $9,886); and
– apartments with one bedroom or less: $1,399 for rural areas (decrease from $1,843) and $8,652 for urban areas (increase from $6,723).
Commercial and industrial development will see an increase. Developers will now pay $7.21 per square foot (up from $5.22/ft2) for commercial space, $3.61/ft2 for industrial space (up from $2.62/ft2) and $1.80/ft2 for warehouse space (up from $1.31/ft2).
Outside the urban boundary, DCs are $0.76/ft2 (down from $1.31/ft2) for commercial development, $0.38/ft2 (down from $0.72/ft2) for industrial development and $0.19/ft2 (down from $0.36/ft2) for warehouse development.
Murphy explained the municipality will now offer discounts for certain portions of the urban areas.
“It was considered that development occurring within the built boundary for both Arthur and Mount Forest would be given a 10 per cent reduction and for development occurring within what is called the central intensification corridor … their development charges reduced by 25% reduction,” he said.
In the new DC bylaw, the charge for a wind turbine would decrease.
“It looks like we’re reducing the charge for wind turbines by $957. I’d like to propose that we leave it at the existing charge because it looks like we’re incentivizing wind turbines when we already declared in 2013, that we are a non-willing host,” said councillor Sherry Burke.
CAO Mike Givens said the number is lower because the municipal-wide services charge was decreased.
“The way it’s calculated is the same; the result is different because municipal-wide services have declined in this version of the bylaw,” said Givens.
“The thinking was that parks and recreation weren’t utilized by wind turbines. When you’re building them you utilize the roads; there are potential for fire activities, but parks and recreation are not utilized by wind turbines.”
Councillor Steve McCabe said he would like to see the charge increased.
“You can change the policy, and we can bring it up to that $2,965 by including parks and (recreation), but you just can’t pick a number because we don’t like wind turbines,” said Givens.
Murphy warned turbine developers could contest the logic behind increasing the development charge to include parks and recreation services.
“I think it would be great if we could not have to impose DCs,” said Mayor Andy Lennox.
He added imposing development charges is the only way to have a fair approach that is “best for our community as a whole.”
“While’s it’s distasteful for an elected official to impose development charges, the only way that all stakeholders win is if the value of the community grows,” said Lennox. “And I think focusing on the price of DCs is not in the best interest of the use of our time or our community, but instead focusing our efforts on building value in a way to benefit everyone and rather than focusing on the imperfections of the DCs.”
Council approved the development charges bylaw with an amendment to include parks are recreation services in the calculation of wind turbine development charges.
