City considers increasing application review fees

Builders are poised to pay 20-percent more for municipal staff to review planning applications as the city tries to raise more money to satisfy new turnaround times ordered by the provincial government.

The planning department was struggling to meet the legislated timelines to review development applications when the Ontario Progressive Conservative government brought in Bill 108, which passed in June, and dramatically cut the turnaround timelines.

The province previously gave municipalities 210 days to review official plan amendment applications. That time has been reduced to 120 days. The timeline for reviewing a zoning bylaw amendment application has gone from 150 days to 90 days.

The planning department says it needs more resources to meet the demand, so instead of tapping property taxpayers for the extra money to hire seven full-time staff, it will go to the development industry. A developer proposing an amendment to the official plan currently pays the city $20,170 to review the application. A review of a major zoning bylaw amendment application costs $16,370. The proposal calls for increases to $24,043 and $19,513, respectively, starting in 2020.

The number of development applications filed at city hall has been climbing in recent years: 839 in 2016, 930 in 2017 and 939 in 2018. There were 555 applications filed at the halfway point of 2019.

The planning committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed staff ’s plan to raise the application review fees to hire more staff.

The city intends to hire five engineers, a solicitor and a co-op student with the new revenue. The extra money generated by fees is estimated at $1.8 million, with $750,000 of that being earmarked for new technology to manage applications. Council will be asked to approve the new development application fees on