A proposal to double some development cost charges (DCC) in the District of Sechelt brought the development community out in full force May 2.
A crowd of developers and community members sent a clear message to council that raising the fees now would only hurt an already struggling development sector.
"To consider doing this kind of thing at this time is really, really scary because I don't see much happening. We're not out of the dump yet. I haven't seen any recovery. We've only got one major project in Sechelt happening right now," said Coast Community Builders Association president Clark Hamilton, noting it is getting more expensive to build and more difficult to sell in the current economic climate.
The District is contemplating raising the DCCs charged for a single-family unit from $10,872 to $19,072. In an effort to encourage building of townhouses, the DCC rates would go from $10,872 to $13,615 per unit, and to further encourage building apartment units, the rates would actually lower from $10,872 to $9,583 per unit.
However, congregate care units are proposed to be hit with the largest DCC spike, going from $1,310 per unit to $6,046. Commercial and institutional developments would be charged $41.15 per square metre, up from $20.01, and industrial developments would be charged $23.77 per square metre, up from $10.30.
The DCCs are collected by the District at the time of building to help pay for roads, sanitary sewer, drainage and parks projects in Sechelt.
Sechelt council initiated a DCC review earlier this year after realizing the rates had not changed since the 1990s. A detailed report was done by consultant Bob Twerdoff, who looked at the present status of Sechelt's DCCs, projected future growth in Sechelt and the District's long-term capital project plan to come up with the proposed increases.
Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster said the District has limited DCC reserve funds left to pay for upcoming capital projects, making the review all the more necessary.
"I should say that DCCs are not a popular levy in the development community, but the reason the province created DCCs, and this was the province that created them, was to have development pay for a portion of infrastructure that is triggered by new growth rather than be totally supported by taxpayers," Inkster said.
Some in attendance at the May 2 meeting saw the need to build up the District's DCC reserves, but suggested the increase be done in stages, rather than all at once. Inkster noted that is an option to look at.
Hamilton asked that the development community be consulted further before any decisions are made.
"We need to figure this out together please include us in the process. We've talked about it many times now and for quite a while, four years, that we want to be included," Hamilton said. "We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. All of us depend on this for our livelihoods and, in fact, so do all of you. All of us together depend on what goes on here in terms of growth and development."
Inkster stressed that council has not made any decisions on raising the DCC rates yet, and that council will take a serious look at the comments coming from the meeting before deciding what to do.
"Council is not committed to making a decision on this matter until it reviews comments from the public information being presented tonight. So, thank you all for coming," he said.
The District will receive comments on the proposed DCC increases until May 20. After all the comments are in, staff will prepare a report for council.
