The Town of Innisfil continues to wade through increasingly unknown waters as it looks to enact a new development charges bylaw for the municipality.
Representatives from Hemson Consulting were on hand to give an overview of the new development charges background study and development charges bylaw, at a public meeting on Wednesday.
The study and the bylaw are the first ones put together for the municipality following the enactment of several regulatory changes by the province, including Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act.
Under Bill 23, the length of the bylaw extends from five years to 10 years, with the fully calculated rates that council will approve being phased in, from 80 per cent to the full 100, over the course of the first five years. That means that development charges, in some cases, will decrease in the short term when compared to today’s rates.
Discounts and exemptions will also be put in place for non-profit housing and rental housing, as well as affordable/attainable housing. However, as Jackie Hall from Hemson told councillors, the latter has not been enacted by the provincial government yet and likely won’t be in effect until later 2023 or early 2024.
Coun. Kevin Eisses wanted to make sure the town wasn’t putting itself in a precarious position, having to lock in for twice as long with the new development charges bylaw, looking back to what the town prepared for five years ago in its last development charges study and how it actually turned out.
“I think of it as this is our budget for five years and we have no leeway to change it,” he said. “What tools do we have, if we get three years down the road and the financial situation is different?”
Town treasurer Audrey Webb did her best to put Eisses at ease, mentioning that growth projections were fairly aggressive at the time. And while the growth program was close, it couldn’t have factored in the inflation that’s been seen since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Council can change its development charges, but not on a whim, she added. The process council is going through currently would have to be repeated and might not even be the fix to financial problems.
“We do have the option of opening back up the background study and revisiting that,” Webb said. “If we thought our capital costs had increased substantially and it warranted an update, we do have the option of doing. It becomes trickier now because of the required phase-in.
"It causes us to pause, analyze and think if we want to do that because as soon as we open up the background study again and renew those rates, we have to start at 80 per cent again," she added.
The new bylaw separates the non-residential charge into industrial and non-industrial categories, which had been a request Eisses made of the consultants and town staff when the matter was discussed in June. As a result, industrial development charges will decrease by about 10 per cent from the previous non-residential rate, with the difference being made up on the non-industrial side.
Under the proposal, per-unit residential development charges will run from $23,968 for a small apartment (bachelor or one-bedroom) to $53,681 for a single/semi-detached detached home. Industrial projects will be charged $116.78 per square metre, while non-industrial will see a $222.24 charge per square metre.
The bulk of these rates will go to pay for new road-related costs, Hall explained. Residential rates vary by area of Innisfil, and when combined with development-related charges, such as what is levied by the County of Simcoe, rates could top out at more than $116,000 per single/semi-detached home.
The value of the development charges was also questioned by councillors.
Coun. Robert Saunders was concerned proposed charges were too high.
“These rates seem to be quite hefty over five years,” he said. “Have we seen any decline in building over the last five years?”
Director of planning and growth Andria Leigh says she's confident the rates won’t deter builders from choosing to develop in Innisfil.
“The decline we saw was actually just one year during COVID with those circumstances,” she said. “When you actually look at the last five years, the building permit activity has continued.”
Coun. Alex Waters was more concerned about how Innisfil’s charges stacked up against other nearby similar-sized – and growing – municipalities, such as neighbouring Bradford West Gwillimbury.
“Both on residential and industrial/non-industrial, we seem to be significantly higher than Bradford, which is directly south of us,” Waters said. “We’re all in the business of trying to attract business and we’re interested in attracting new residents ... (so) why the difference between two close communities of relatively the same size?”
Hall admitted the difference can look dramatic at times, but reminded councillors of some of the differences in service groupings in each municipality, as well as the exclusions or discounts each may have approved, prior to Bill 23 coming into effect.
With Bill 23 looming large, both Mayor Lynn Dollin and Hemson’s Craig Binning suggested that the two municipalities might get closer in their charges sooner than later.
“There wasn’t a phase year one to year five for them, so I’m guessing that they’ll be coming up to doing their (development charge) review shortly,” Dollin said.
“They’ll certainly be within the timeframe of your bylaw,” Binning said, adding Innisfil’s road capital program is “much more extensive” than Bradford West Gwillimbury, alongside more “complex” water and wastewater infrastructure owing in part to the spaced out nature of the urban areas in the community.
“Even though population-wise you’re similar, the nature of your servicing is challenging and more costly,” Binning added. “I would anticipate that Bradford’s numbers would move higher as we move forward into the next round. They probably haven’t captured all the increases we’ve seen through COVID.”
The background study put together by Hemson plans out to 2031 for general services, such as parks or libraries, 2041 for water/wastewater needs 2051 for transportation, by when Innisfil is now predicted to house nearly 100,000 people and almost 25,000 jobs.
Beyond the provincial regulations, the town has also included non-statutory discounts and exemptions to development charges for hospitals, places of worship and agricultural uses/farm buildings.
Under provincial guidelines, only one public meeting on the changes is required, however, additional consultation with the development industry has been undertaken, with two meetings earlier in the spring.
Development representatives also provided written comments to the town, officially through the clerk and to each member of council, prior to the Aug. 16 public meeting. No members of the public or the development community spoke during the public meeting.
Those comments will be addressed by the time the bylaw comes up for enactment in September.
The bylaw is expected to come into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
