Development Charges provide for the recovery of growth-related capital costs associated with residential and non-residential growth within a municipality. They help to ease the financial burden on existing taxpayers to fund services as a result of growth, which would otherwise be in the form of higher property taxes or user fees. The principle behind Development Charges is that growth should pay for growth.
The Development Charges Act provides the legislative authority for the collection of Development Charges and requires that a background study be completed at least once every five years. The study forecasts the municipality's future residential and non-residential growth to determine infrastructure needs and costs. This information is used to calculate the amount of money that new development needs to pay to cover new infrastructure and services.
On August 8, 2022, Council passed a new Municipal Development Charges By-law, which applies charges for the following services:
- Services Related to a Highway
- Fire Protection Services
- Policing Services
- Ambulance Services
- Library Services
- Parks and Recreation Services
- Waste Diversion Services
A settlement has been reached and approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal regarding the appeals filed against Development Charge By-law 149-2022. Through the settlement negotiations, it was agreed that future Collector Road projects that were originally identified in the Development Charges Background Study will be removed from the Development Charges calculation and instead will become a direct developer responsibility at the time of development. This has resulted in a development charge reduction across all development classes retroactive to August 9, 2022, when By-law 149-2022 was originally passed. It was also agreed that the development charges will increase at a fixed rate on annual basis up until August 9, 2027, at which time the current by-law will expire, and the Municipality will undertake a new Development Charges Background Study.
The revised Development Charge Rates from August 9, 2022 until August 9, 2027 can be found below.
Helpful Links
The Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission (PUC) also has development charges in place for water and wastewater-related infrastructure. For more information, including the current rates that apply, please see the Water & Wastewater Development Charges page.
