Leamington considers levying development charges again
Leamington plans to levy development charges again.
The town’s council voted Tuesday to hire Watson and Associates Economists Ltd. for $43,100 to conduct a study on potential development charges.
Councillors voted unanimously in 2014 to eliminate the charges for three years. Only one charge was left, for water for greenhouse development. It was cut by 46 per cent.
Heinz had announced it was closing its plant in Leamington, and there was uncertainty about a new, viable industrial employer. There were also few serviced lots, and the town wanted to attract investment and create jobs.
The attempt to stimulate growth paid off, with construction value for new development tripling, including residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and greenhouses.
So council, in what then-mayor John Paterson called a “rather aggressive stance,” repealed its development charges bylaw altogether in 2017, leaving it one of few municipalities without such a bylaw.
“It was never considered a longterm solution,” current mayor Hilda Macdonald said Tuesday. “It was an incentive.
“We’re seeing lots of growth now, and we have to capitalize on that,”
she said. “Some growth, especially in greenhouses, is causing damage to roads, and we need to catch up. Growth needs to pay for growth.”
A report to council by Laura Rauch, the town’s director of finance and business services, cited “unprecedented growth” over the last five years, with the number of building permits and planning applications increasing every year.
But it takes about three and a half years of property taxes on a typical new home to pay what would have been the development charges for that home.
The study will examine how to pay for water, wastewater, roads, fire, police and administrative services. Levying development charges is considered critical to recover the cost of expanding these services to keep up with growth.
The study will also look at charges that can be imposed on existing projects that aren’t subject to development charges, such as greenhouses that have damaged roads.
Leamington’s development charges were high before they were eliminated. Macdonald wants them to be comparable to those of other local municipalities.
The report emphasizes that the lack of development charges isn’t the only reason for the town’s growth.
Imposing development charges again won’t stop growth, said Macdonald.
“It certainly hasn’t stopped development in other municipalities,” she said.
The study, public meetings and implementing the new development charges are expected to take six months. Ninety per cent of the cost of the study can be recovered from development charges once they’re implemented.