Belleville council has wholeheartedly approved a new way of financing new residential construction that could allow developers to build out projects more quickly.
The usual Letter of Credit process forces developers to pay 50% of the development’s costs to a bank to provide security for the city against default on the subdivision agreement.
Under what’s called Pay-on-Demand Subdivision Bonds, developers would pay a premium to a surety company to provide security to the city but the actual funds would not be held for the duration of the agreement.
Councillor Barb Enright-Miller supported the bonds.
“We have an ever-growing housing market and this will help the developers keep some money in their pocket and continue the growth for us so I fully recommend it.”
Councillor Paul Carr said the Pay-On-Demand SubDivision Bonds are another example of municipalities finding ways for developers to build more housing more easily and quickly.
