Burlington Keeps Current Development Charges to May 29 During COVID-19

COVID-19
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*Please see below a media release issued by the City of Burlington.Burlington, Ont. — April 29, 2020 — The City of Burlington with Halton Region and other local municipalities are keeping the development charges to the previous rate until Friday, May 29, 2020. Development charge rates are normally adjusted annually on April 1, using a set index that follows the Province of Ontario’s Development Charges Act, 1997 (DCA) and the City’s Development Charges (DC) By-law 29-2019. This year, the rate was to increase by three per cent on April 1, 2020. 

"We believe this provides some assistance to the development community which may be experiencing delays in addressing work due to the broad range of closures and limitations across the community. By extending the pre-April 1st development charge rates, we hope to ease the burden of increased fees and assist applicants that have developments in process." -- Joan Ford, Chief Financial Officer, City of Burlington

COVID-19 is causing unprecedented working conditions to all industries, including the business and construction industries. The City recognizes that building permit applicants who normally would have been able to complete the process before April 1 have experienced unexpected delays. To help ease this delay, the City, Halton Region and the other local municipalities will provide the pre-April 1 development charge rates for building permits issued up until May 29, 2020. This will require two agreements under section 27 of the DCA to be executed before issuing the building permit; one for Halton Region and one for the City. The City of Burlington is using section 27 of the DCA because of the extreme circumstances COVID-19 presents. The agreement provides indexing relief for development charges payable until May 29,2020. Chief Financial Officer, Joan Ford“We believe this provides some assistance to the development community which may be experiencing delays in addressing work due to the broad range of closures and limitations across the community. By extending the pre-April 1st development charge rates, we hope to ease the burden of increased fees and assist applicants that have developments in process.” LINKS AND RESOURCES:

—PLEASE NOTE: To stay updated on what the City of Burlington is doing regarding COVID-19, please visit the dedicated pages burlington.ca/coronavirus (and subscribe) and bit.ly/mayormeedwardCOVID19updates, and our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page — bit.ly/COVID19BurlingtonFAQ that are updated as new information becomes available.A Burlington COVID-19 Task Force has been created to help support our community through this unprecedented emergency — updates will be provided at burlington.ca/COVID19taskforce.To report an incident of non-compliance with provincial emergency orders, please contact the Halton Regional Police Service COVID-19 Hotline: 905-825-4722.We’ve also created a dedicated page to feature the local organizations and businesses that have inspired us during the COVID-19 pandemic by taking action to support our community in new and creative ways — head to bit.ly/covidwallofinspiration.HELPFUL RESOURCES & RELATED LINKS:

—*Posted by John Bkila, Mayor’s Media and Digital Communications Specialist.

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