Greater Sudbury city council has approved a bylaw to increase development charges and to no longer exempt institutions from opening their wallets.
Under the new bylaw, single family dwellings will carry a development charge of $13,808, and charges on multi-residential dwellings and apartments will total $8,646. This is an increase of $10,729 and $6,787, respectively.
Commercial and industrial development charges will also go up, and institutions such as schools or hospitals will no longer be exempt from paying development fees.
The charges will be phased in over three years. The first phase-in would take place on Jan. 1, 2010. The other phase-ins will take place up until Jan.1 2012, by which time they will be at full value.
“We are allowed to collect (higher development charges). As a municipality the mistakes we've made over the years are now blatant, because we didn't bite the bullet a long time ago,” Ward 3 Coun. Ted Callaghan said at a council meeting a few weeks ago, when council decided on the amount of the increase.
Development charges don't apply to schools that are under a board of education. This means that elementary schools and high schools, primarily, won't be affected.
Mayor John Rodriguez wished to take that concept further. At the July 8 priorities meeting, he fought for places of worship, hospitals, colleges and universities to be excluded from paying the charges.
“I fail to see how exempting these institutions that are driven by development demands, are in any way taking away from taxpayers,” the mayor said.
But he failed to win over council with his reasoning.
“It's Wednesday, and Sunday's coming. And I want to go to heaven,” Coun. Ted Callaghan joked. “So, I hope when I make my vote here that I can still go to heaven.”
Rodriguez also reasoned that if the bylaw taxed projects the city partially funded, like a new building at Laurentian University for example, council would essentially be putting a charge onto its own money and gaining some of it back.
All councilors present voted against the mayor and defeated the recommendation.
City council also voted that the new bylaw won't affect building permits that are completed prior to July 9.
Designated areas will still have fee exemption though. These would be areas the city is looking at expanding, such as the downtown core.
A Dalron controller, Lawrence Duguay, said the consumer will ultimately pay.
“It will definitely reach the consumer,” said Duguay during a previous council meeting.
He said it might not directly show by price increase, but said, “either way, they will feel it somehow.”
“We've committed ourselves to changing this,” Callaghan said. “It's time we do something that should have been done 15 years ago.”
