Community Benefits: 1. …

Community Benefits:

1. Transition: No issue.

2. Reporting on Community Benefits: No issue.

3. Reporting on Parkland: No issue.

4. Exemptions: No issue.
Recommend adding "places of worship" to the list (matches most Development Charge By-laws).

5. Community Benefits Formula: A formula based on value of land will be very difficult in small urban and rural municipalities. Eastern Ontario land values are much lower than the GTA, which may hinder our ability to collect Community Benefit (CB) Charges for actual capital infrastructure. An example:
Current recreation DC per dwelling: $782.
Appraisal Cost: $300-$500
If the proposed CB changes go into effect, the developer's costs go up 51% because of new appraisal costs.
Current DC's are predictable for developers and simple to apply. Changing too a formula will create more uncertainty and introduce more variables.

6. Appraisals for Community Benefits:
Using the value of land / appraisals to determine the Community Benefit Charge is far to cumbersome for smaller municipalities. It would cost developers more to obtain an appraisal, than any potential reduction. Our current $782 (recreation DC) charge would not merit an appraisal appeal. The whole proposed appraisal process will create more bureaucracy and red tape. Monies collected for Community Benefits (recreation) would be drained by appraisal costs.

7. Excluded Services for Community Benefits - No issue.

8. Reserve Account:
We collected $15,500 for Recreation DC's in 2017. If that is translated into a Community Benefit charge, we would have to spend 60% every year. This would force our Township to spend on small items ($9,300 worth) and not save up for recreation projects which require the building up of reserves. Basic parkland equipment costs between $30,000 to $40,000. Typically, we take a few years savings to purchase new capital equipment. With the new proposed regulation, we will not be able to save up for basic playground equipment or larger park installations. Please remove the 60% rule or apply it every five years.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Development Charges Act & Planning Act changes relating to recreation and parkland not be implemented for municipalities with a population under 100,000.