Town-of-Huntsville.jpg
(Photo: huntsville.ca)

Town rakes in about $1.4M in development charges in 2022

At their May 29 General Committee meeting, Huntsville councillors were given an overview of the Town’s development charges (DCs) over the last two years.

The municipality had a banner year in 2022. It collected $1,414,700 in development charges compared to $931,273 in 2023. Sometimes, developers apply for a deferral of development charges, for which, if approved, the municipality charges interest.

While 2023 resulted in a significant drop in development charges from 2022, which was probably the highest the municipality has seen, the good news, said Town Director of Financial Services/Treasurer Julia McKenzie, is that “with the interest rates we’ve actually earned income of about $240,0000 (in 2023) whereas the year before it was about $70,000.”

Deputy Mayor Dan Armour wondered why revenue from development charges dropped so significantly from 2022 to 2023. Director of Development Services Kirstin Maxwell noted that the Town’s Chief Building Official would be presenting a report in June on the building permits issued, which she said might shed some light on the situation.

In follow-up correspondence, Maxwell noted that municipalities rely on development charges to fund growth-related projects. “DCs are normally payable at time of building permit issuance, so they are reflective of the building permits being issued, not the granting of planning approvals.”

Asked why she thought there was such a significant discrepancy in DCs collected between 2022 and 2023, Maxwell said, “I believe that in 2022, we were still seeing the effect of increases in development that started during COVID, and subsequently, the economic situation has slowed development to a certain extent.”

She said over the last few years, the Province has made many changes in how development charges can be applied and collected, mainly in an attempt to encourage and accelerate the provision of housing units. “The Province is in the process of establishing provincial guidelines to address affordable and attainable housing eligibility, and the Town will be providing further guidance once more information is available.”

In the meantime, while the Town worked with a consultant on updating the Town’s development charges background study, staff were able to go back and apply some of those funds for growth-related projects such as Huntsville’s downtown Streetscape, the Etwell Bridge, and a fire pumper and fire training facility, explained McKenzie. “So what that means is we’ve taken more DCs, but we’ve put the money back into reserves, so that leaves more reserves intact..,” she added.

You can read the report by clicking HERE (pdf).

Don’t miss out on Doppler!

Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!

Click here to support local news

Join the discussion:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments are moderated. Please ensure you include both your first and last name and abide by our community guidelines. Submissions that do not include the commenter's full name or that do not abide by our community guidelines will not be published.

0 Comments