Growth Won’t Pay for Growth: Burlington Estimates Losses in the Millions From New Development Regulations

Growth won’t pay for growth under changes to community benefits charges proposed in Bill 108, say our City of Burlington staff.The changes would eliminate the ability to collect “Section 37” community benefits under the Planning Act to compensate for the impact of additional height and density granted on a development application.Instead, municipalities would have to create a Community Benefits Charge Bylaw that would be capped at 10% of land value of a new development at the time a building permit is issued. The bylaw can be appealed to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.Collecting money or other benefits helps municipalities fund infrastructure, such as land for parks, affordable housing and child-care facilities.The proposed change significantly reduces the city’s ability to collect for parkland in particular. Parkland dedication is currently based on an set amount $5,500 per new unit of housing. City of Burlington financial staff took a sample of nine recent developments in Burlington showing the impact of the current calculation versus the proposed changes. The loss to the city under the new formula just for parkland dedication for these samples is over $3 million.Staff also raised concerns about basing the calculation on land value, because it fluctuates and varies by type of development, whereas the set amount per unit is more predictable and scalable based on the size of the development.“Having one cap across the province and for all types of development (high vs low density, residential vs non-residential) is not reasonable,” states a staff report. Staff are seeking additional consultation with municipalities to ensure we can meet the service needs under the community benefits charge authority.The province has also proposed changes to the Development Charges Act. Development charges are levied per unit of new housing to help recover the cost of growth. The change from the original regulation introduced last June will allow municipalities to continue to include “soft” services in our development charge calculation, such as public libraries (including library resources), long-term care, park development (not parkland acquisition), recreation facilities (including arenas and community centres) and public health.In addition, the mandatory 10 per cent discount is removed so growth-related capital costs for these services would now be eligible for 100 per cent development charge funding. Both changes are considered positive.At our April 20 meeting, City Council unanimously endorsed the staff report CC-3-20 and recommendations. The report will be sent to the Province of Ontario, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing as the City of Burlington’s response to the consultation on the Proposed Regulatory Matters Pertaining to Community Benefits Authority under the Planning Act, the Development Charges Act, and the Building Code Act, ERO 019-1406.The deadline for providing feedback was April 20, extended from March 31 due to delays arising from the COVID19 emergency.MY TAKE:Growth has never paid fully for growth, and the proposed changes to the community benefits calculation make it that much worse, especially for parkland. This is particularly troublesome in a city like Burlington which has very little open land left and is also experiencing significant development. But new residents need parks and other community amenities as much as housing. That’s all the more reason why we need to be able to create new parks using growth funding. We hope the government will reconsider the formula base on the analysis provided by staff and unanimously endorsed by council.-- Mayor Marianne Meed WardLINKS:

• City of Burlington Media Release: Burlington Opposes Changes to Community Benefits Charges Impacting Revenue and Supports Development Charges in Province’s Bill 108 Regulations
• City staff report: CC-03-20 Comments on Bill 108 Regulations
• Comments submitted to the Province: Appendix A - CC-03-20 Comments on Bill 108 Regulations

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