It’s going to cost a lot more to build in Sechelt after council approved increasing some development cost charges (DCCs) by over 100 per cent at its Feb. 1 regular council meeting.
The DCCs now charged for a single-family home, townhouse or apartment on sewer in Sechelt have risen from about $8,622 under the old DCC bylaw to $22,449, $15,177 and $10,009 respectively under the new DCC bylaw.
The new fees will be charged to developers when they subdivide or rezone property or apply for building permits (an individual buying a lot from a developer or an owner who has subdivided property does not pay DCCs); however, there’s a grace period for developers already in the queue.
“There is a grace period of one year after the adoption of a bylaw such as this for any relevant development applications,” said development planner Aaron Thompson at the meeting.
“That includes subdivisions, rezonings, development permits and active building permits.”
Basically, any developer who submitted an application to the district before Feb. 1, 2017 and who pays their application fees before Feb. 1, 2018, is exempt from paying the new rates.
New applications, however, will be expected to pay the new DCC rates.
Thompson said staff planned to send letters outlining the process to those developers affected.
Council was unanimous in its approval of the new fees on Feb. 1, with many noting the change had been a long time coming.
The district hadn’t updated its DCC bylaw since 2004.
Coun. Noel Muller said the huge increase was needed to start to address a massive infrastructure deficit facing the district.
“Here in Sechelt we decided to take some action on that,” Muller said on Feb. 1, drawing attention to Schedule B of the new DCC bylaw, which lists dozens of drainage, sewer, road and parks projects needing over $41 million in funding between now and 2030.
“There’s no parallel funding that would allow those projects to go ahead, and so, with this … I estimate somewhere close to about half of our infrastructure problem is dealt with almost immediately.”
The new DCC bylaw is titled Bylaw No. 554, 2016 and it can be found in the Feb. 1 regular council agenda on pages 29 to 34, accessible on the District of Sechelt’s website at www.sechelt.ca. A full list of the projects to receive funding through DCCs starts on page 35 of the agenda.
