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Midwestern

Brockton council aims to lower development charges

Council for the Municipality of Brockton are asking staff to make significant cuts to the proposed development charges that have been in the works for the last year.

Staff have been working with B.M. Ross since December 2023 to study development charges and come up with a draft by-law.

Under the most recent draft development charges by-law, the proposed fee for building a single detached home in Walkerton was $9,075, (and $7,982 for a singe home in one of the other hamlets) which council agreed was too high.

The charges are meant to support growth-related projects and reduce the burden on existing taxpayers, for things like a new arena and ball diamond, infrastructure upgrades, and firefighting equipment.

Councillor Tim Elphick said they needed to determine which of these projects were needs, and which were wants.

"It is important for us to really focus on what is absolutely necessary, for us to impose as part of our development charges moving forward," he said. "There are large capital projects that will certainly benefit from having DCs in place, but on the list that we have in front of us, is well beyond I think what the core purpose and the fundamental value that developmental charges truly have in municipal settings."

Council settled on a range of between $4,000 to $5,000 for the proposed development charges, and gave staff suggestions for projects they'd be willing to part with.

CFO Trish Serratore warned that the funding for those projects would still need to come from somewhere.

"We can go back and put it within the range, but any difference that we have from the proposed rate we have now to that range, does fall back on the taxpayers at a later point in time," she said. "Having the development charge actually helps offset those tax rate increases in the future by not putting as much of a burden on our current taxpayers."

Projects that council said don't need to be funded through DCs, included shop expansion, purchasing another trackless sidewalk plow and parkland development.

The revised development charges report will likely return to council next month.

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