The developer of a single-family home in Bradford will be expected to pay up.
Based on a report from Ian Goodfellow, the town’s director of finance and treasurer, committee of the whole recommended Nov. 5 that council deny a returning development charge (DC) deferral request from Pat Agostino over a planned single-family home at 68 W. Dykie Court.
The town’s remaining DCs for the property are about $18,868, according to Goodfellow, who explained the town’s previously reported amount of about $64,000 hadn’t taken into consideration that the developer already paid the water, wastewater and roads DCs in 2020.
Goodfellow’s recommendation to deny the request remained unchanged.
Based on committee’s direction and deferral of the same matter during the Oct. 15 meeting, staff surveyed other municipalities within the County of Simcoe and Grey County and found none of the nine respondents have any sort of DC deferral program to incentivize small developers, nor are staff aware of similar programs elsewhere, according to the report.
“Considering our peers, the fact that this is the first such request to defer residential DCs and the relatively low monetary value involved, staff do not believe that such a program is warranted at this time,” Goodfellow said in the follow-up report.
Committee voted to deny the request without further discussion. But it had considered several options during the Oct. 15 meeting, including a recommendation from Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano to implement a six-month grace period for DCs for small developers while the industry is slow.
Chair and Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu agreed “it’s difficult” to deny Agostino’s request, but stressed that deferring DCs should only be done for the benefit of the community and emphasized the risk of setting a new standard by providing special treatment.
“You make a decision on one, you’re making a decision on all of them,” he said at the time.
While the town currently has seven DC deferral agreements in place, Agostino’s request would have been the first related to the construction of a single-family home, according to Goodfellow, who explained the existing agreements include three for hotels, one each with the developers of the West Gwillimbury Power Centre and the Holland Street West SmartCentres plaza, one for the severance of a residential lot on Simcoe Road and one for the accommodations of seasonal farm workers.
Unlike Agostino’s request, past agreements were based on supporting initiatives that provided positive economic spin-offs, or incentivizing developments not otherwise available in town as a way of adding community amenities, according to the report.
Even if council had approved the deferral it would have only applied to the town portion, and DCs to the county of about $13,900 and to the Ontario Ministry of Education of about $4,900 would still have been due once the building permit is issued, according to the report.
Recommendations from committee of the whole are considered for approval at the next regular council meeting.
