Final decision on development charges set for September
St. Catharines council considering charging developers for new builds like the rest of Niagara does
St. Catharines remains the only lower-tier Niagara municipality without development charges, but that could change as early as January.
City council is moving forward with a draft development charge process and will vote on a bylaw in September.
It’s estimated the city could collect millions of dollars in charges annually from developers to help cover infrastructure costs related to new builds that would otherwise be covered by taxpayers.
“Development charges are not mandatory, but if you do not collect the money through the development charges to pay for growth-related works, then the existing taxpayer, residential and non-residential, ends up subsidizing growth by contributing all of the costs associated with that infrastructure,” consultant Gary Scandlan, from Watson and Associates, told council last week.
“This is a balance, this is for council to consider how much or what level of recovery they wish to incur.”
St. Catharines had some development charges in place from 1991 until 2009, when they were removed to
encourage building at a time when there was slow growth. The situation is now different.
The city hired Watson and Associates in March 2020 to do a development charges background study and Scandlan presented the draft plan during a public meeting.
In the past 10 months, there have been council workshops, task force meetings, engagement with stakeholders and through the city’s online Engage STC site and discussions with Niagara Home Builders Association.
The background study was released to the public on the city’s website June 3 for feedback.
St. Catharines is forecast to grow by 5,440 residential units over the next 10 years and 12,900 units over 20 years. There’s also anticipated growth for non-residential building, with an estimated 3.35 million square feet of space in the next 10 years and more than 7.7 million square feet in 20 years.
Council heard when growth occurs there are additional costs for infrastructure and services, such as more roads, transit, fire protection, stormwater drainage, library services and parks.
It’s expected the city will have $200 million in capital costs due to all that growth over the next 21 years, but $58.5 million of it would be eligible for funding under development charges.
The proposed plan would see St. Catharines join Niagara’s other 11 lower-tier municipalities in having development charges, but the city would be on the lower end of fees.
A developer building a residential single detached or semidetached unit would pay $10,141 in St. Catharines development charges, compared to $33,577 in Lincoln’s Campden area, the highest in the region. Only Welland, Port Colborne and Wainfleet would have lower fees.
Proposed commercial and industrial development charges would also put St. Catharines toward the bottom of the list, though Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Port Colborne have no industrial development charges.
Council will receive a final staff report to discuss at its Sept. 13 meeting. If it approves the development charge bylaw, it’s proposed to come into effect Jan. 1.
Bruce Hall, a principal in The Planning Partnership, which is involved in land use planning and development throughout Ontario, asked councillors to consider phasing in the development charges for projects in the early planning stages.
Hall said there are developers with projects who are in the midst of completing studies and reports required by the province and city in order to be able to submit complete applications. “This sometimes can take years and several hundred thousand dollars,” he said.
He suggested a phase-in of three years for projects in early planning stages, to allow flexibility.
St. Catharines is forecast to grow by 5,440 residential units over the next 10 years and 12,900 units over 20 years