Belleville council has set development charges for the next five years.
Effective June 1, 2022 the development charges levied on a new house in urban Belleville will jump from almost $16,000 to a little over $24,000, a figure recommended by consultants.
The commercial rate will be set at around $7 per square foot, lower than what consultants recommended but higher than the current $5.70 per square foot.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk says Belleville’s new development charges remain very competitive with other cities in the region but that existing taxpayers have been paying far too much for the cost of growth over the past years.
“What we did is we’re looking out for existing taxpayers in this budget. We understood that the longer we delay in recovering the costs that are coming because of growth the more pressure we put on existing taxpayers.”
Development charges are levied against new developments to help pay for the added municipal infrastructure made necessary by the developments and are ultimately folded into the final price of a new property.
