A final recommendation on the Town of Parry Pound’s proposed Development Charges (DCs) will be presented to council in June.
Parry Sound’s CAO Clayton Harris reported to council on Tuesday that the April 11 meeting with local developers regarding DCs went very well, with over 22 people in attendance.
Harris says the Town shared its financial constraints adding that he thinks everyone at the meeting agreed that we want and need more development. He says the development industry also shared its concerns with the potential rise from DCs.
“Everybody knows we haven’t had development charges in town for many years. So [the industry’s] way of expressing their concern was; we’re going from zero to 60 overnight, and we need to maybe look at [if the town] can phase in the rates,” Harris says.
“I wouldn’t say there was unanimous consent that we need development charges, but I would say the majority of people in the room recognized that in order to do the work that’s necessary to support more growth, development charges are something that we’re going to have to deal with,” he says.
Harris says the Town also explained that 70 percent of the DC is for water and sewer operations, to create capacity so that more growth can come. In addition, he says 22 percent relates to roads and road networks.
“So 92 percent of the charge is for hard services, water, sewer, and roads, that you really need to support growth. It’s not for adding things that aren’t really necessary. It’s not for making gold-plated facilities. These 90-plus percent are for real hard services needed for growth and development. And [the industry] understands that,” Harris says. He says a phrase that was used a lot during the April 11 meeting was “finding that balance”.
Harris confirmed that a more fulsome report will be coming to the May 2 council meeting, with his final recommendation to follow in June.