Weber presented her report to council on Wednesday
The suggestion that County Council look into development charges sparked passionate discussion at their meeting on Wednesday morning (March 6).
A staff report identified that five out of nine of the local municipalities already have development charges – Sandra Weber, Director of Planning and Development said that the charges looked to cover county services which would see higher demand due to growing communities.
MacLellan was of two minds about the issue
The report looked to neighbouring counties for examples – Bruce County implemented development charges in January and will phase those in over the next decade.
That population growth was something that Mayor of Huron East Bernie MacLellan pointed to as a direct increase to the county’s revenue streams.
Although many municipalities in the county have experience with development charges, Reeve of Howick Doug Harding expressed concern that introducing development charges on the county level could serve as a deterrent for new developments – a sentiment which was echoed by Mayor of Central Huron Jim Ginn.
Mayor of Bluewater Paul Klopp said that the amount of money required to do a study would be a waste, as many municipalities wouldn’t benefit from the change, and would see even greater resistance to existing fees.
Vanstone said that there had already been some resistance to charges introduced in ACW this year.
While staff insisted that the intention was for new growth to pay for the needs for new services that are needed as a result, Deputy Mayor of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Bill Vanstone said that their community had already been resistant to the recent introduction of development charges, and that such charges would be doubling the burden on payers in municipalities that already have them.
Mayor of Goderich Trevor Bazinet stated that in his experience, the majority of developers ask for exemptions, and asked that if they were to entertain exemptions from developers, that specific terms of reference be developed to govern them and streamline the process.
Mayor MacLellan said that the opportunity to allow for exemptions to their development charges was a great way to incentivise denser housing.
Klopp was vehement – a report would be a waste of staff time.
He said that they could waive development charges for builders that were creating starter homes, or purpose built rentals, to help those being pressured by rising housing costs.
However, Mayor Klopp dug his heels in, saying that the amount of financial gain would minimal, but people will resent further charges.
A resounding majority voted against bringing back a report – killing any hope that development charges would come to Huron County in the foreseeable future.
Written by: B. Shakyaver
