Huron County Council Considers and Then Rejects County Level Development Charges

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County council discussed the pros and cons of county level development charges at Wednesday's council meeting.

Planning Director Sandra Weber says Huron County council had directed staff to prepare a report on county level development charges and as part of the report, staff were also asked to connect with one of their neighbouring counties to see how these charges were being implemented there. Currently, there are no development charges at the county level in Huron County, however, there are development charges and bylaws in place at five of the nine local municipalities. Weber says council was interested in some further information on county level development charges to help them decide whether they wanted to move in that direction or not.

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn said they don't have development charges and they have not gone down that route because they want to encourage as much development as possible. Adding a new charge, that would fall on the developers, would discourage that. “That's just going to add to the cost and I think the way we do it in Central Huron is working well. We do charge for hook-ups to water and sewer and things like that, so my personal preference is that we don't move ahead with development charges at the county level,” said Ginn.

Ginn adds when they're trying to get more development, adding a development charge is just creating another barrier. It's just another cost and they've struggled to get development in Central Huron for years and years and now that it's happening he doesn't want to put up another road block.

Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellen says he's not in favour of development charges but thought some comments about how other counties could give Huron some tools to help get contractors to build starter homes for young people, and less expensive homes would be beneficial. As of now, the county doesn’t really have any authority to force those kinds of developments. “I had the same concerns as the rest of county council where I didn't want to see another level of taxation. But if it is something that can be used to encourage developers to build the type of homes we want in Huron County it might have some merit.” MacLellan also pointed out if they find down the road that another municipality has had success with development charges then they can always re-visit it.

The report was received for information but council did not direct staff to bring back any further reports or do any further research on the topic as a motion to ask staff for more information on county-level development charges was defeated.