Development charges could be dropped for small apartments downtown
Councillors will review a proposed plan on Monday to nix development charges for small apartment buildings in the downtown – and start imposing development charges on industrial lands citywide, instead.
Right now developers have to pay development charges to put up an apartment building downtown. A new idea from Hemson Consulting would remove that charge for buildings with up to 15 apartments as a way to encourage construction of downtown apartments.
Meanwhile Hemson also recommends that the city start imposing development charges on all industrial lands (right now there’s no charge).
If council adopts both ideas, says a city staff report, it wouldn’t likely cost anything: lost fees for apartment buildings downtown would be offset by new fees to build on industrial lands.
The idea is being presented to councillors at a meeting on Monday.
Citizens will be invited to speak to council about it at a public meeting at 5 p.m. on Feb. 5 at City Hall.
A more-detailed report will then be presented to councillors at a meeting March 2 and it would go to a vote thereafter.
Also on the agenda at the general committee meeting on Monday:
New online procurement process:
The city is switching to a new online portal for procurement of tenders and bids.
Biddingo.com is currently used to post the city’s procurement documents, but not for much longer: the plan is to switch to another portal called Bids and Tenders.
Under the current process, vendors must buy a Biddingo membership for $250 a year; this allows them to see procurement documents online and then submit bids on paper.
Meanwhile Bids and Tenders charges a less-expensive annual membership fee for vendors ($165), and also allows them to submit their bids electronically.
A city staff report states that the new system will be implemented sometime between June and September.
Bids and Tenders is a portal also used by other government agencies, states the report, including Peterborough County, Peterborough Utilities and both local school boards.
Downtown sidewalk sales:
Council will be asked on Monday to approve street closures this summer for the following sidewalk sales and festivals:
June 2, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Charlotte St. is proposed for closure between Aylmer St. and George St. for Taste of Downtown.
July 21, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; most of George St. is proposed for closure for Peterborough Pulse.
Aug. 11, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Hunter St. is proposed for closure between Aylmer and George St. for Hootenanny on Hunter.
Don’t forget to check The Examiner’s website on Monday for livestreaming, blogging and tweets from the meeting. It all begins at 5 p.m.