HEDDY SOROUR

On Jan. 14, the town of Carleton Place convened a public meeting to present the background study for revised development charges. The town has been developing the background study since early 2024 and released the document on its website on December 18. The consultant, Nancy Neale, manager Watson and Associates Economist Ltd, said she had worked closely with staff to develop the study.

“It is the norm for towns or cities to include developers in consultation when reviewing Development Charges. In the past year with the City of Ottawa we had at least a dozen meetings,” said Pierre Dufresne, President Lanark Leeds Homebuilders Association and Senior Vice President, Cavanagh Communities.

According to Dufresne the Lanark Leeds Homebuilders Association has reached out to the town requesting consultation on Development Charges and Official Plan reviews but has not received a response.

The proposed new development charges will more than double from the previous charge, going from $17,057 on a single detached home to $43,980 per unit.

“At the end of the day there’s going to be an increase in Development charges, we all know that. We accept that growth needs to pay for growth. We’re aware of the infrastructure and transportation masterplan conclusions from the recent studies that Carleton Place has done. We just want to make sure the increase is fair and equitable,” said Dufresne, in an interview with Hometown News.

One of the issues is the time frame the town is using to calculated future growth.

“For some services we’re looking out over a 10 year period, for others we’ve looked at over a 20 year period, and then for water and wastewater, we’re actually looking at the costs associated with the urban build out of the plant capacities. At this point we’re anticipating it will be post 2044,” said Neale in her public presentation.

It is not unusual to have more than one time period calculated into DC charges, but Dufresne is questioning the need to collect charges now from today’s new homebuyers for services that won’t be needed for 20 years, when the by-law itself has to be reviewed well before that.

“We feel that the new home buyer in the next five years should not be burdened with paying the incremental size that benefits growth 15 to 25 years, and I say five years because every five years typically a new by-law comes in,” clarified Dufresne.

According to Dufresne the town’s planning horizon in their Official Plan goes to 2038 – their infrastructure work plan goes to 2043.

“So it’s unfair to include projects that are post 2038 because first of all your denominator in the calculation is too low and it is not including the units being built between 2038 and 2048,” said Dufresne adding that it’s one of the questions he’s posed in a letter to the consultant.

The developers are also asking the town for a 90 day grace period. The way things stand, the town can pass the by-law within 60 days of releasing the background study to the public. So technically the by-law can be passed on Feb 18 and once passed it comes into immediate effect.

“Many of our builders have purchase and sale agreements with new homebuyers that are a set price in the contracts – we do have the ability to go back to the purchaser – most of us build into our contracts that there will be an adjustment if the municipality passes an increased DC – but that large an increase could disqualify a homebuyer from being able to purchase that home,” said Dufresne.

A 90 day grace period would allow builders to pay the previous development charges rate and not have to increase the price of the home after they’ve entered into purchase and sale agreements.

“That does not imply a loss of revenue for the municipality. It sounds like it does, but it doesn’t because when they go to their next by law and start the calculation all over again with all the infrastructure costs and what’s in their reserve fund they would collect that difference,” explains Dufresne adding that a grace period is not an unusual clause.

The town staff member in charge of this file was not available for an interview in time for this publication.