Loading...
10 30 1991 Public Minutes , , TRB CORPORATION 01' TRB TOWN8HIP OP ORO PUBLIC DftING (OBVBLOPO CltARGBS AC'l') WBDNBSDAY. OCTOBO 30. 1111 . 8:00 P.K.-COUNCJ:L CllAllBDS ORB HUNDRBD ANI) BIGHTY-BIGftH DftING 1188-1111 COUNCIL The following members of Council were present: Reeve Robert E. Drury Deputy Reeve David Caldwell Councillor Alastair Crawford Councillor Allan Johnson Absent: Councillor David Burton Also Present Were: Mr. Henry Sander, Mr. Ron Robinson, Mr. Vince Dibacco, Mr. Bud Arbour, Mrs. Maxine Arbour, Mr Eric Scott, Mr. George Scott, Mrs. Angela Baldwin, Mr. Ralph Clarke, Mrs. Josephine Martensson, Mr. Joseph S. King, and Mr. Ross Coneybear. Reeve Robert E. Drury chaired the meeting. Reeve Drury opened the meeting by explaining to those present that the purpose of the Public Meeting was to receive input and comments with respect to the proposed Development Charges rates pursuant to Bill 20, known as the Development Charges Act, 1989. To date, the Council have not made a decision as to the rates established, other than proceeding to this Public Meeting. written comments are invited to be received by Friday, November 8, 1991. Notice of the Public Meeting was placed in both the Barrie Examiner and the Orillia Packet on October 10, 1991. Reeve Drury also advised that prior to this evening's meeting, an Open House was held between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to provide for a more informal exchange of information between the public and the consultants and staff. All persons present would be provided with an opportunity to ask questions or provide comments. The meeting was then turned over to the Township's Engineer, Ron Robinson and Vince Debacco of R.G. Robinson and Associates and to Township Treasurer, Henry Sander, to further explain in more detail the proposed Development Charge Fee. Ron Robinson: There is two main reasons for meeting here tonight. Firstly, it gives us the opportunity to explain very briefly the Draft Report that we have prepared and secondly and probably more importantly it gives you people an opportunity for input. Our firm was authorized by Council in May of this year to proceed with the Study Report under the Development Charges Act. Over the subsequent months, in consultatio with Township Staff, Township Planning Consultants and several meetings with Council, we have prepared the support documentation and calculations and the Draft Report. - 2 - Ron Robinson: The Draft Report was made available on or about October 10, 1991, the day the notice appeared in both the local papers, the cit of Orillia paper and the City of Barrie paper. We would like to make it clear that we are not here to argue or defend the Act as such, but we are prepared to speak on our report, to answer any questions you have before the Final Report is prepared for Council's consideration. vince Dibacco, my colleague, has authored the report, he has a hand out that he will basically follow as a short presentation t you people. We will then open the meeting to you for your input. vince Dibacco: The reason for doing this Report is to try to develop a charge that reflects the true cost of new development, whether it be residential, or non residential development. The reason for the charge is to cover the cost of growth related costs. I should also mention that the cost that w are going to be examining later on have been net of provincial Subsidies or other kinds of subsidies that the Council can receive. The other thing we should note is, why we have these charges; is to support new lands that will be developed. The reason why we are doing this is becaus in the past the municipalities were able t collect levies as a result of the Municipa Act and the Planning Act requirements. However they had no basis for entering int common services and collecting for common services. Two years ago the Province of ontario came up with this new Development Charges Act which tried to give the municipalities the power of implementing common projects. I would like to now explain how we came up with this new policy. We started with looking at the reason and the need for new works and that is to support the new development that is going to occur. Existing development has not been factored in, what we are looking at is the new development that can occur. In the Report, what we have tried to summarize is the growth forecast for both residential and non-residential growth. The population that we have projected for the base year of 1991 is approximately 8,800 people which was also confirmed by recent information we received from the Regional Assessment Office. We then had t look at a ten year growth forecast. To do that we consulted a number of different documents that were available and differen - 3 - vince Dibacco: people that had different sources of information. We have spoken to the Planning Department here, to outside consultants, to people that are in the industry, trying to get an understanding a to what developments could occur. We have estimated that the new growth which may occur over the next ten years is approximately 5,900 people and that is based as a result of looking at new plans of subdivisions that are being processed, development applications that are in various stages of receiving approvals, etc Likewise, we also looked at the Commercial Development and Industrial Development tha could happen. To do that we looked at wha happened in the past and tried to project what could happen in the future. As a result of that we indicated that approximately 365,000 square feet of new non-residential development could occur. Once we came up with our ten year growth forecast, we then started to look at what kind of services the Township would have t bring on to satisfy the needs of that new development. These are summarized in Appendix "B" of our report. It identifies all the works that we examined, which include hard services such as bridges and roads, water mains, Administration Service such as expansion to the Municipal Offices computer system expansion, and equipment expansion. We looked at protective services such as the requirements for more fire stations, more fire vehicles, etc. W also looked at soft services such as Parks and Parks and Recreation. To try to enhance your understanding of this, I would like to take one example of facility that we have looked at and show you how we develop the cost associated wit that in the levy. I will use the fire station as an example, I think it is prett representative of a typical service that this township provides. (Referred to page 3.1 of the report and followed through, coming up with the costs associated for ne growth. ) I would like to now show you how the costs come into play into the development charge (Referred to page C-4 of the report which summarizes the per capita cost for all the works that were looked at, that the municipality will be providing over the next ten years.) I would just like to point out that certai portions of the Township have an additiona service that the majority of the Township does not have. There is two hamlets calle Shanty Bay and Hawkestone which have a municipal water supply system. That service is only provided in those two hamlets. - 4 - vince Dibacco: I would like to explain some of the exemptions that we recommend is part of this report and study. This applies for new growth. There is certain items of growth that should be exempted from the application of these levies. The main one pertain to things such as municipal uses, yards, work yards, new municipal buildings and also to schools. There is also other uses that should also be exempted from paying these charges, such as church related uses, new non-residential farm buildings, and things like new barns or ne tool warehouses, etc. The other thing I would like to mention is the timing for payment of the charge. The municipality has a number of options that they could collect the charge on. Our recommendation is that the charge should b collected by the Township when the Buildin Permit is issued. You would go through th normal subdivision approval process, you would sign your subdivision agreement; at the time that you go and secure a Building Permit is when you pay the new levy. We would now like to receive your comments or questions on this document and your comments will be noted and if appropriate we will be incorporating them in the final document. We have set November 8th, 1991, as the time that we will cut off any comments, we will then revise our report accordingly and anticipate having the fina report to the Township by November 15th an at that time the Treasurer will be taking that report and setting up a Council date to deal with it. Joseph King: I am speaking on behalf of MSL Properties. Components like arenas and community centres, is that to say that existing residents will not use them? Joseph King: Existing residents will use old facilities and new facilities. In the way we develop the costs of that expansion; what we have done is look at all the existing facilitie that are there. Lets take the arena as an example. The arena at this time is approximately 80% utilized, you still have about 20% opportunity of taking on additional growth. We have come up with a standard by which the existing residents use the arena. We know what our future population is going to be, so we have come up with a future need and from that future need we have netted out the 20% of the arena that is not presently utilized. It appears that the most critical number i the per unit count 2.9, all the aggregate dollar figures are divided by that amount. What has been happening as most people are aware is that the number of persons per household have been decreasing steadily since the 50's or 60's. What will happen vince Dibacco: - 5 - Joseph King: if in a few years from now the actual number of persons per household decreases? Doesn't that mean that the municipality is collecting far more money than they actually need? vince Dibacco: You are right. If you have an opportunity to go through our population forecast, we have already factored in a declining per unit factor. We have declined it in as O. per year per unit. What we are saying as time goes on the density factor will decrease over time. Joesph King: You said at the beginning of your comments that you looked at what the Township is providing now in terms of services and estimated what the growth would be and how much it would cost to maintain those services. Many of us in this Country recently have rethought about the way we live in terms what governments provide to us and how much they provide to us. Many of us are thinking that government and citizens are asking for too much. Did you discuss with the town at all whether in fact we need as many community centres or fire protection; the level of service, wa it ever discussed that maybe we are providing too much now? vince Dibacco: We have attempted to do that. As you can appreciate there is no right or wrong answer. When you come to something like fire service for example, we try to find out from the Province what was a desirable standard. There is no literature to help us out, so lacking that all we could do wa just base it on past performance. If you go through our analysis there is areas for instance such as library facilities which the municipality could start to allocate costs for such a facility. There was a perfect example where we had to make the decision should we start to say that is a desirable service that we want to provide sometime in the future but if you go through the analysis you can see there has been zero cost allocated for that. There is areas where we could have been putting costs in but we have not and I picked library service as one and there is many others that we looked at but assigned no cost to it because we have not provided that service in the past. Reeve Drury: The feeling of this Council was the level of service that we are providing today was adequate and we certainly did not encourag an increase level of service for the future. Joseph King: The specific question I have pertains to the water component as it relates to Shant Bay in particular. Your firm did a study back in July of 1990 and expanded the existing system in Shanty Bay to service our subdivision, the Arbour Subdivision as - 6 - Joseph King: well as the existing lots that have not ye been hooked up. The bottom line on that report from our perspective was that it wa going to cost us approximately $2200. per lot to get that service in place. Now I look at this report and it indicates that if this goes through as written it is goin to cost us $3630. per lot which is an increase of approximately 65-70 percent. How do you justify this? vince Dibacco: The report was done approximately a year and a half ago and was based on dollars back in a year and a half to two years ago What we have had to do is come up with a common dollar for all of these works so we used December 1991 as a represented common dollar. So there is a certain amount of escalation in the unit cost of probably 8- percent. But that does not justify the total increase that you see there. The second reason I want to offer is more complicated. To come up with a cost for a service such as water you put all your costs together and then you look at what new development that is going to serve. (Explained mathematically in detail.) Whe you use this common approach you will find that the cost to anyone developer or any one project may be slightly greater or slightly less than the common. Ron Robinson: What has not been mentioned is looking at the report it includes only the expansion of the water supply system. Under the Act it applies to trunk water mains as well. don't have the numbers here but I know the truck water main constitutes a significant increase in the cost. Ralph Clark: I am in Concession 1 of Oro and I anticipate being a Developer. This particular piece of land that I own and anticipate developing; they have asked me to upgrade the road from the corner of my property back to the 15/16 sideroad. You have here on Table 1-1, the third item, as going to cost $247,800. to do that strip 0 road. I have a legitimate quotation here from one of ontario's most reliable road builders for $116,000. I feel one hundred and ten percent increase as a cushion is too high. That is a December of 1990 quotation. vince Dibacco: Maybe just a couple of points of clarification. The cost you see here is a estimated cost. When this Development Charges Act is implemented you will no longer be required to pay for that section of the road, it will be done by the Township under their Development charges Policy. This cost you see here may represent a higher level of service on tha road than what this organization is proposing. We may be high in certain area and we may be low in others. - 7 - Ralph Clark: I would like you to explain to me about front ending? I understand that if that I am billed at that $247,000. and I put out my $116,000. as the population grows; I get a kick back basically because there will be other people starting to use that same road. This is where I am suppose to get some of my front ending back, is that correct? vince Dibacco: Correct. You made an assumption though that this municipality will not have the funds to undertake that project. This municipality may at that point in time dee that as a priority project and may actuall construct that through their reserve funds If their reserve funds is not sufficient then they may ask you to front end that road. vince Dibacco: My next problem is: You anticipate an increase of 15,050 homes from 1991-2001 which is an average of 155 homes per year. This Council, have been sitting on this Council for the past six years and the two bulk years are the only two years that you guys went near this quota. In 1988 and 89 you surpassed these figures then you drop to 28 in 1990 and I don't see a figure for 1991. Are there any homes passed in 91? If you are anticipating 15,050 homes to pu a bank account in there for front ending 0 for anything else, this Councilor any future Council is going to have to wake up and not take two and a half years to give me an Official Plan Amendment which is utterly ridiculous. I sent letters to these various government people and everyone of those people sent me back a letter advising me within a two month period that the land was acceptable to all of them to go to a development. If that i the rate you guys are going to operate you will not see 15,050 new homes in this period. with respect to the 1991 figures; the reason that they are not there yet as you can appreciate we still have two months in 1991 and I didn't want to show anything that was misleading. Ralph Clark: The costs that are shown here are best guestimates as to the cost of constructing these roads. If these roads are front ended by a developer, the actual cost that will be front ended will be the actual construction costs. If it turns out to be $116,000. that is all the better for everyone because everyone will benefit fro it. Ron Robinson: This is a ten year forecast but under the Act we have to update this Report on the fifth year, but it can be updated anytime. If Council deemed that they wanted to look at this Report every year then they can do that. This is not fixed for ten years. - 8 - vince Dibacco: One of the recommendations in the report i that the Treasurer on a yearly basis, presents a report to Council advising them of how well they performed against the targets they set for the previous year. The Treasurer has the power to recommend that if he feels that those numbers are no being matched, that the report be examined with respect to certain aspects. Ralph Clark: I have one more suggestion to make here. In my two and a half year period of trying to get this Plan of Subdivision finalized, I went through four Township Planners. I do not feel that this Township requires tw engineering companies to answer the Council's questions. Reeve Drury: We do not want to tie things up, it is no problem for us if it comes back across our desk time and time again. Our Engineering Department here responds very quickly. Ou Planning Department, for some reason or another it seems to take a lot of time to get things through different planners. We have acted upon it and have now instructed our in house planner that we hope that as soon as possible she will be able to take over the whole planning issues of the municipality rather than having a consultant firm. We do not feel, except for in special cases that the outside planning consultants are going to be necessary. Kris Menzies does have the qualifications to do the whole job. Bud Arbour: Once the Act is put in place, do I understand that it could come up for revie and be altered or would it be mandatory that these charges remain for ten years? vince Dibacco: As we indicated, the Act stipulates that 0 the end of the 5th year, it must be updated. However, there is options there that if what we have done is going off course, then at the end of every year it can be revised. Bud Arbour: Do you intend to supply water service to the existing homes in Shanty Bay? vince Dibacco: The existing homes will have the option to tap the source and it will probably be don through the implementation of a local improvements charge. Bud Arbour: They would be tapping into services that have been paid for by the subdivisions. Their money would go into the fund then? vince Dibacco: The way it has been calculated is in the calculation of the Development Charge, it has been based on new growth only. The no new growth has been allocated to the Township. So the Township is going to pay for a portion of the cost that the existin population benefit from if they hook up to the charge. As I indicated, when " . . , vince Dibacoo: Bud Arbour: vince Dibacco: Mrs. Martensson: Henry Sander: Deputy Reeve Caldwell: - 9 - eventually the water main is in place I a sure through the local improvements charge they will reimburse the municipality for their share of the costs. I realize and I think it is very difficult to arrive at and to estimate what you migh encounter in drilling new wells. The existing wells are up to capacity in my subdivision which I have been working on for five years. We certainly hope to have 100 lots on 110 acres, therefore, your hydrologist might very well deem that they would drill a well on my property. The trunk line then would be to get real good water supply there to supply the MSL Subdivision. So I will not need a trunk line, will I? At $3,630. for 100 lots tha will be $363,000. so I feel rather satisfied that after a couple of years tha when you get good water supply and the costs are less, that you are able to look at it and talk to us. At this point in time, it is speculation a to where the well is going to be located, the number of wells and so on. The Treasurer is already doing that kind of forward thinking and is in the process of receiving proposals to initiate the preparation of a hydrogeological assessmen study to try to identify good sources of water, locations for them, the size of wells, etc. As we indicated, if the hydrogeologists findings are as such that we have to change certain portions of this report, that can be done in due course as that revised information becomes available The report states that you are anticipatin using the same policing arrangements that we are at the moment. How close are we to having the population where we have to provide our own policing, and if we did, would it be reflected in the Development Charges or spread across the entire assessment? Basically within the Development Charges Act, the Township is only able to provide for services currently in place. As the police system is currently set up we all pay through our provincial taxes to have the O.P.P. run up and down the highway for us. As such, it is not one item that we can include within our Development Charges Act. However, there has been certain things go on within the County the past couple years, being the restructuring and am not so sure that might be one of the costs that comes out of that at some point in time. If three years down the road we are told b the Province that we had to pay for part 0 the O.P.P. costs because it would be a new level of service, could we not then sit down and review our Development Charges I,. "" " - 10 - Deputy Reeve Caldwell: with respect to any new development. I would suggest that in my opinion it woul be very much similar to what we are providing currently with the Library Services to both Barrie and Orillia. Because we are still providing just a contract basis between the two cities, we do not have a house facility ourselves. The policing would be the same sort of situation, as such, we would not be able t include that as a cost to be included in our Development Charges. Henry Sander: Mrs. Martensson: If after a few years you found it was excessive because the road Sections were not being met, would the people who paid b subject to a refund? vince Dibacco: It all depends, if it is a result of front ending that the developers are going to do then there is no need for it because they are actually paying for the actual costs. If it is a matter of a levy that has been paid then there will be some adjustment in there to reflect those adjustments. It depends on how the projects are undertaken Henry Sander: There are mechanisms basically built into the Act itself that give developers or individuals a chance to come forward and b heard at the appropriate time. There being no further questions or comments, in closing the meeting, Reeve Drury thanked all those in attendance for their participation and advised that Council would consider all matters before reaching a decision. MOTION NO.1 Moved by Johnson, seconded by Caldwell Be it resolved that the deputations made at the Public Meeting tonight be received for consideration; and that any written comments with regard to the proposed Development Charges Rate as presented, be also considered if received by Friday, November 8, 1991; and further, that the Township's Consultants and Staff be directed to review all comments and prepare a final report, to be presented to Council. Carried. MOTION NO.2 Moved by Crawford, seconded by Johnson Be it resolved that we do now adjourn this Public Meeting @ 9:20 p.m. Carried. /b dt ¿.., \/~hJJl íJs= . ~LERK DARLENE SHOEBRIDGE'