Surrey cuts development fees to give business in city a boost
Vancouver taking an ‘ad hoc’ approach, while Victoria still putting together plan
With the B.C. government set to reveal its plans for easing COVID -19 restrictions and reopening the province this week, municipalities are looking at ways to stimulate their local economies.
In the province’s two largest cities and its capital, the approaches being taken to economic recovery vary.
Surrey’s plan, which was approved by council this week, includes some specific actions aimed at businesses and development.
Businesses that can’t pay their licensing fees will have late-payment penalties waived during the provincial state of emergency, and the penalties won’t be applied until 30 days after that state of emergency ends.
New and “in-stream” projects that have a construction value of greater than $25 million in the city centre area will be given a break on development-related fees.
The 50 per cent discount will apply to application fees for rezoning, development and development variance permits, servicing agreements and building permits. The development application and approvals process will also be expedited for qualifying projects.
It is unclear how much the city will lose from the fee reductions — it depends on how many projects qualify — but according to a staff report it’s believed the loss of revenue “will be more than offset” by the economic benefits.
Both residents and businesses will benefit from a 90-day extension on paying property taxes. Late payment charges will now come into effect on Oct. 1.
Mayor Doug McCallum did not respond to an interview request, but said in a news release that with its plan, “the city is taking care of its economic house while keeping a keen eye on how we can ease the financial burden of our residents and businesses during this challenging time.”
Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman said the development-related measures are important, but they focus on the city centre and the hope is that the strategy will take into account development across the city.
There is also an opportunity to offer more support to small and medium-sized businesses in the form of some kind of relaxation or postponement of tax increases for businesses.
Vancouver is taking more of an “ad hoc” approach to helping the business community, said Mayor Kennedy Stewart, rather than bundling everything “in a neat package.”
“Our economy is so diversified that I don’t know if we’ll ever have an economic recovery plan that would encapsulate every industry in the City of Vancouver, and I don’t know if that would be as useful as just getting to work,” Stewart said.
Council has struck a pandemic response and recovery working group, but Stewart and staff have already been talking to representatives from various industries to find out what they need and gathering as much data as possible.
Kennedy said as the city identifies what is needed, initiatives will be brought to council.
For instance, he said next week he will introduce a proposal that could shave months off the development process for some projects.
At the end of the month, Stewart said staff will come forward with some “regulation redesign” ideas that will be along the lines of what Surrey has implemented and will reduce red tape for development projects.
The city has already delayed property tax payments to Sept. 30 and is reviewing development applications and issuing business licences.
Victoria’s efforts, which are included in the Victoria 3.0 economic action plan and will go before council for consideration next week, are focused on small businesses and involve creating strategies, committees and guides. Much of the work on those initiatives remains to be done.
Mayor Lisa Helps said the two most important measures are tool kits: one for how to adapt to a new normal and a second that will lay out best practices for future emergencies.
The city scrapped its planned property tax increase and moved the due date to Aug. 4, but it is not planning to cut development fees because the fees cover staff time.
“It’s been the businesses and city hall working side by side and hand in hand the past six weeks to come up with the ideas in Victoria 3.0, and we’ll continue to work going forward together,” Helps said.