A news article was published this week that the Ontario government may be considering some significant changes to development charges.
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This goes beyond just your water bill. It covers many different aspects of infrastructure that could cause a significant increase in your property taxes.
Development charges are fees collected from developers at the time a building permit to help pay for the cost of infrastructure — such as roads, transit, water and sewer infrastructure, community centres and fire and police facilities — required to provide municipal services to new developments.
Each new home built is required to pay a development charge ranging from $6,731 to $27,725 based upon the size and type of residence. You can view the fee schedule here:
Town of Cobourg Development Charges
Some advocates claim that housing would become more affordable by eliminating these fees for new home owners.
As an example, the 2019 funding of the long term debt from the development charges reserve for the construction costs still owing:
- For the Cobourg Community Centre is $276k
- For the Cobourg library is $40k
With regards to funding roads in 2019:
- Development charges will cover 52.5% ($735k) of the Kerr Street extension from Division St to the Railway Spur Line.
- Development charges will cover $900k of the reconstruction of part of Densmore Road.
Without these development charges, current homeowners would have to pay for these infrastructure improvements.