Burlington developers are paying as much as 45 per cent less in fees thanks to a planning application fee review.
The review, presented to council's committee of the whole on Monday, suggests the city adjust the fee to better align with anticipated costs of processing large-scale developments.
A new by-law to amend the fee is to be voted on by council.
“The recommendations in this report propose interim updates to the definition of an application and how combined application fees are calculated resulting in a fee reduction of approximately 45% for large scale residential and mixed use developments,” the report reads.
The current fee schedule for development applications was last studied in 2021, and approved by council in 2022. The new process suggests ongoing application fee reviews, to be completed by the end of the year.
“We’ve met with a handful of our developers, and I think it’s a key point, the update really only affects a small handful of properties in the city,” Jamie Tellier, director of community planning said. “It’s outlined in the report, but it’s really large scale development applications, things that we didn’t anticipate back in 2021 when we had previously kicked off our fee review, that we are seeing now.”
Tellier added that Burlington is not the only municipality that is doing this type of review in Ontario. He continued that consultant company Watson and Associates Economics Ltd is helping other cities with similar review projects.
It’s not clear exactly how much developers stand to save following the adjustment in terms of dollar value.
Burlington mayor Marianne Meed Ward added the city was collecting more than it needs for cost recovery.
“This isn’t going to be something that lands on the taxpayers,” Meed Ward said. “This is about readjusting in light of reality, and the amount of work that is required.”
The mayor received the memo on Friday afternoon, and reached out to several people to get their opinions – hearing only good things about the adjustment.
The bylaw will go before council on July 16, and if approved will be in effect the next day.
The maximum fee for an application is calculated as every building on a property more than four storeys tall, each building is considered a separate application. On buildings 12 storeys or taller that share a podium, each tower is considered a separate application – with the floor area and residential units in a shared podium only calculated in the fee for the first application. And in cases where a development site is separated by a public road, each land parcel requires a separate application when calculating the maximum fee.
