Builders to pay higher fees
Builders of new single family homes in West Kelowna will pay 40% more to the city in DCC fees, city councillors decided recently
Builders will pay a lot more to the City of West Kelowna after a new slate of development cost charges was approved by councillors.
But councillors were unapologetic about the increases, which include a 40% rise in DCCs collected from builders of single-family homes, saying they were necessary to fund municipal construction projects aimed at keeping up with the demands of population growth.
“I know there will be people who complain it’s too much, you’re going to do this or that, we’re already seeing that from some of them,” Coun. Doug Findlater said at a recent meeting.
“But I think we should not make any concessions at this point. We should go full bore ahead. We’ve got a growing community, it’s bursting at the seams, and infrastructure-wise, be it roads or sewer or water, it needs a lot of attention. So we should be going for the gold on all of this,” Findlater said.
The big increases are unavoidable because it has been many years since the city updated its DCCs, Coun. Rick De Jong said.
“Hence we’re faced with some substantial increases,” De Jong said. “I can understand the grumbling. There’s some big changes here.”
The city’s plan going forward is to link DCCs to the inflation rate, conduct minor reviews of the charges every few years, and a major review every five years.
“Those are the three components that I think are critical for the community so we don’t get to the same position where we are today where we’re subsidizing development thousands and thousands of dollars,” De Jong said.
The charges are collected to pay for things like new roads, new parks, new water lines, sewage treatment, and other municipal infrastructure that is put under pressure by population growth.
Here are the old and new DCCs for various types of new construction:
— Single family home – $18,481 to $25,819, up 40%
— Apartment – $97.05 per square metre to $155.77 per square metre, up 61%
— Commercial – $42.83 per square metre to $76.42 per square metre, up 78%
— Carriage home – $47.54 per square metre to $65.06, up 39%
The rates must still be approved by the provincial government but that process is usually a formality.