Hello, My name is Andrew…

Hello,

My name is Andrew Head from Dryden, Smith & Head Planning Consultants Ltd. In Kitchener. I am also the immediate past president for the Waterloo Regional Home Builders Association.

I will try to be brief.....

1) The planning process has not been made easier with Bill 23, now the applications are front loaded with more risk for the applicant. I personally have emails to planning staff where I have to chase them down for weeks even months before I get answers to easy questions in order for us to submit the complete application. I would be happy to provide you with examples. Further, Municipal staff make useless requests. We are being forced to complete a traffic study for a small condo development that fronts onto a cres. in a small town. We have been advised that 4 units will not even make a blip on the Traffic Impacts study. Yet the entire cres. can have up to 3 units per lot. This just drives the cost of housing up. Noise study for redevelopments on busy streets....

2) Allow rural residential lots to be created when the meet the criteria (non prime agricultural lands, outside the natural areas, unable to be a viable farming operation, expand settlement areas that can safely house - yes this means we will need support for septic systems and wells.

3) zone the areas around the transit stations so it is one less process to go through for approvals

4) streamline site plan standards across the province. ie. Why is there 3 different sizes for parking spaces for Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge?

5) HST on housing ... 13% on a million dollar home is $130,000 this money is put onto the mortgage which the banks charge interest on and cost double $230,000 (or more) to the end user. Why not make the tax portion a flat rate for the end user (1%) the bank still gets paid and this will decrease the cost to the end user making home more affordable. I am sure the banks will still make record profits

6) mandate Cities to provide the infrastructure to get services to the development areas. They will get the development charges to pay for it once it is built.