Belleville council received a presentation and heard public input on Monday regarding a proposed change to its Development Charges (DCs) By-Law that would make industrial properties no longer exempt from development charges.
Council heard a presentation from Byron Tan of Watson & Associates outlining the proposed update.
“Industrial DCs, which have been exempt since the life of the current by-law, would have totalled approximately $14.4 million worth of development charges since January 26, 2022,” Tan said during his presentation.
“So those monies have been exempted, and the money that could have been used for infrastructure, you would have to now top that up from other non-DC sources, such as taxes, water, wastewater rates, etc, to build those same pieces of infrastructure.”
It was noted that due to regulations, any forgone revenue from one property type cannot be made up by increasing development charges on another.
Following the presentation, CEO of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce Jill Raycroft spoke during the public input.
Raycroft says she has heard “resistance to the concept” and that the chamber is working on finding an alternative.
“One of the things we have proposed, that we are taking to the federal government in October actually, is the idea that maybe there is a way for the federal government to become more involved with supporting municipalities whose ratepayer base may not be able to support the industrial growth that’s needed in order for Canada to remain competitive, especially in this day and time when we are looking to do that,” Raycroft said during public input.
Council will vote on the amendment at its July 14 meeting.
