Burlington City Council Approves Amendments to Development Charges Bylaw
"This update will bring additional revenue to the City to help pay for the new infrastructure and services that a growing community needs. This helps protect taxpayers from subsidizing development, so growth better pays for growth. In our next, full update, we can look at ways to provide incentives for affordable housing." -- Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
*Please see below a news release issued by the City of Burlington.
Burlington, Ont. — March 25, 2022 — Burlington City Council has approved amendments (Bylaw 26-2022) to the City’s Development Charges (DC) Bylaw (Bylaw 29-2019). The amendments to the City’s DC bylaw have been made to reflect the changes legislated by Ontario’s Bill 108: More Homes, More Choice Act and Bill 197: COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act.Approved amendments include:
- The removal of a 10% deduction for soft services (e.g. park and recreation services, library services and studies);
- The addition of a non-statutory exemption of development charges to non-profit housing development; and
- Updates to development charge eligible capital cost estimates to reflect revised cost estimates for transportation, parks and recreation, storm drainage, library and studies.
Development Charges are fees imposed by municipalities on development and redevelopment to help pay for the cost of infrastructure required to provide municipal services to development such as roads, transit, storm drainage, parks and recreation centres.Updated development charge rates will be effective April 1, 2022, and include the annual indexing based on the Statistics Canada Quarterly Construction Prices Statistics.More information is available in the Development Charges Update Study and Bylaw, and the Development Charges Bylaw Amendment Report (F-06-22), both available at burlington.ca/developmentcharges
"In response to the recent legislative changes, the City needed to align and update our Development Charges (DC) Bylaw. The City worked with Watson and Associates Economists Ltd. to complete the DC Background Study Update to address these legislative changes. This smaller DC background study is not a full DC study and has limited impact to services. A full study will be conducted in 2022/2023 with more in-depth stakeholder engagement and longer study timelines." -- Joan Ford, Chief Financial Officer, City of Burlington
Quick Facts:
- As part of the discussion to amend the City’s DC bylaw, the challenge of affordable housing was raised, including the tools available to incent affordable housing units. In January 2021, Council endorsed the Housing Strategy Proposed Terms of Reference. The objective of the Housing Strategy project is to develop an innovative Housing Strategy that redefines the City’s role in housing and sets out recommendations for policies, tools and actions to address local housing needs. A wide range of actions will be considered including incentives and tools to support the development of affordable housing. The Housing Strategy is targeted for completion in 2022.
- Once approved, the actions identified as part of the Housing Strategy will be considered in the future Development Charges Background Study, currently targeted for 2024.
- The City will complete a comprehensive DC update prior to June 1, 2024, which is the five-year mandated period in accordance with the DC legislation.
Links and Resources
- More information about development charges and the bylaw can be found on burlington.ca/developmentcharges
--*Posted by John Bkila, Mayor's Media and Digital Communications Specialist