MORRISBURG – April 9, South Dundas council received the findings of the Development Charges Background Study it has been waiting for: now that they’ve seen the numbers, they are going to take some time to digest the recommendations.
The background study recommends development charges of $10,623 for single detached and semi-detached residential dwellings in addition to the water ($5,000) and sewer ($5,000) connection fees already charged to those new homes being connected to municipal services.
The study also recommends charging $1.92 per square foot of non-residential development.
Additionally, the report recommends that the water and wastewater connection charges be re-evaluated.
“There is a need and opportunity to increase connection charges to recover the costs of treatment capacity that new connections benefit from,” said the report.
While council received the report they made no decisions about moving forward with implementation.
“I wasn’t expecting them to be this high,” said South Dundas deputy mayor Marc St. Pierre.
“I think we need time to digest this and to go over these rates,” he added.
“This is the first step, and I appreciate getting this information,” said South Dundas mayor Jason Broad.
While the report recommends scheduling a public meeting in May to work toward passing a development charges bylaw in July, council did not seem keen to move forward at that pace.
“We are not bound by these dates. We need to have some conversations,” said Broad.
In Ontario, development charges are one-time fees charged to those building new residential dwellings or commercial buildings to help the municipality cover the capital costs of infrastructure needed to support new growth, like roads, water, and sewer lines.
Municipalities in Ontario can choose to use development charges and determine which services they want to include. The Development Charges Background study included fire protection services, roadway related services and growth-related studies in their calculation to arrive at the recommended development charges.
These charges are intended to ensure that new development pays for the infrastructure it needs, rather than relying solely on existing taxpayers.
Discover more from Morrisburg Leader
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.