Meaford’s council was presented with the completed development charges background study at their July 22 meeting.
“The Municipality of Meaford has now completed a Development Charges (DC) Background Study as part of the process for the approval of a new DC by-law in compliance with the Development Charges Act, 1997 (DCA). The final step is to issue the Notice of Completion which will initiate the public feedback period and will be posted July 22, 2024,” staff noted in their report to council.
The 148-page report was explained to council in a 31 slide presentation provided by Craig Binning of Hemson Consulting, who noted the many changes to legislation related to development charges over the years that have impacted development charges. Development charges are imposed on new developments in order to pay for growth-related capital costs in the municipality, with the principle being that growth should pay for growth.
“For the services that the Municipality provides, a range of capital facilities, land, equipment and infrastructure is available throughout the Municipality, fire stations, park facilities, arterial roads and so on. As new development occurs, new facilities will need to be added so that service levels in newly developing areas are provided at levels enjoyed in existing communities,” staff noted in their report to council. “A widely accepted method for sharing the development-related capital costs for such Municipal services is to apportion them over all new development anticipated in the Municipality. As part of the Municipality’s 2024 DC update, no area-specific development charges are calculated.”
During the presentation of the background study it was noted that development charges for water and wastewater are only collected on new developments that are within the water and wastewater service area.
Binning told council that the background study prepared for the municipality by his firm covers a 10-year planning horizon from 2024 through 2033. He told council that the Municipality of Meaford is forecast to see 635 new dwelling units over the next decade, which is expected to grow the municipality’s population from the current estimate of 11,691 to 12,790 in the same time frame, an increase of 1,099 residents.
The study prepared by Hemson identifies the need for a significant increase to the development charges levied by the Municipality of Meaford. The study recommends more than doubling the current development charge rates, which would bring the Municipality of Meaford to the middle of the pack when compared to 14 area municipalities, and would still be less than half of the current development charges levied by municipalities such as the Town of the Blue Mountains or Barrie.
The background study is a required exercise before calculating new development charge rates.
“Several key steps are required to calculate development charges. This includes preparing a development forecast, establishing historical service levels, determining the increase in need for services arising from development and appropriate shares of costs, attribution to development types (i.e. residential and non-residential) and the final adjustment to the calculated rate of a cash flow analysis,” staff noted in their report to council.
The next step in the process will be public engagement including a statutory public meeting, which will be held in the coming weeks. A date for the statutory public meeting will be announced by the municipality in the near future.
“At this point in the process, public consultation is considered vital to the success of the of Development Charges Study and the Municipality wants to ensure that anyone that is interested has had and will have the opportunity to provide their input,” noted staff’s report to council. “A notice of completion will be published July 22, 2024. This will provide residents and review agencies with the opportunity for a 60-day review (of) the Development Charges Study report and provide comment.”
