Belleville Council has decided to pursue a joint-federal-provincial program to cut development fees and allow more housing to be built to help secure more money for local infrastructure projects.
The $8.8 billion Development Charge Reduction Program is a plan to reduce building costs for developers by reducing development charges and replacing them with federal funding.
A municipality that successfully applies to the program commits to slashing development fees by 50-per cent or more, with the program instead funding critical projects to support housing development.
Eligible projects can be funded up to 90-per cent through the program.
Mayor Neil Ellis suggested in an amendment to ‘front-end load’ the development fee reduction, proposing 100-per cent the first year, 50-per cent in the second year and 30-per cent in the third year of the program.
Ellis acknowledged there is risk involved, but if the city doesn’t do something, there would be no chance of getting any funding for infrastructure.
He added there is a big economic impact associated with this program.
“I don’t like to say this, but we are in competition with municipalities around us,” the mayor explained.
“They build houses also. If we go in with a creative plan, like I suggested, I think a lot of housing in the area, whether it’s from Hastings County, Prince Edward County or Quinte West, would be built in Belleville and we would have all growth that we do need and tax dollars and revenue to come in later.”
Director of finance Brendan Ferguson told council the minimum commitment requirement for the program is to provide a 30 to 50 per cent DCs discount across each year for the total of three years.
He added outside housing impacts could result in up to $1.7 million in charges that are not covered by the federal-provincial partnership program that could be absorbed by local taxpayers.
Coun. Paul Carr expressed his opposition to the amended application, saying he wants to see protection for local taxpayers.
“We need a commitment in writing from both the Quinte Home Builders Association and the non-members that build in our community in terms of the housing numbers so that we will have an accurate number to have in our application,” he said.”
He noted the development charges were key to ensuring all municipal services can grow to serve new developments.
He then made the following post on social media –
The Transfer Payment Agreement will come to council if the application is approved.
This was a time-sensitive issue, as the city needed council to determine whether it would apply for the program by the deadline this Friday, June 19.
