Burlington cuts development charges on new housing
Helps to counter headwinds and make more projects viable
There’s two major bottlenecks to building more housing:
The legal bottleneck, getting approval.
The cost bottleneck. If costs are too high, then even if something is legal to build, nothing will happen. So it’s important to reduce costs as much as possible, including development charges.
Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, on Twitter yesterday:
Today, Council unanimously agreed to lower development charges to support the construction of more homes within our community. This unprecedented decision underscores our commitment to address the ongoing housing crisis, ensuring that #BurlON remains an inclusive and accessible place for all to call home.
By reducing development charges, we are addressing removing a barrier that, in turn, will contribute to the growth and sustainability of our city. This aligns with our long-term vision for balanced and responsible development, while achieving our commitment to enable 29,000 new homes over the next ten years.
The reduction is a result of staff removing projects that will not be started within the time frame of the bylaw, and require upper level government approvals and funding that has not been received. Should the status of these projects change, we can reopen the bylaw or add the projects to a future bylaw.
Removing these projects ensures today’s homebuyers aren’t saddled with inter-generational expenses that may not be realized.
This decision is based on evidence and data provided to us by City staff and I want to commend them for their ambitious and quick work on this file. We need to be nimble and flexible as a municipal government in order to address the changing landscape of the housing crisis.
Learn more here: https://mariannemeedward.ca/burlington-council-unanimously-approves-lowering-development-charges-to-encourage-additional-housing-builds/
Mike Moffatt:
This is great! An Ontario municipality that actually decided to *lower* taxes on new home construction during a housing crisis. You love to see it!
Sean Fraser:
Congrats to Burlington and @MariannMeedWard for their commitment to addressing the housing crisis. Today they voted to build more homes and reduce the cost of construction by lowering development charges!
Details
The timeline looks like this:
F-04-24 Development Charges Background Study (March 22, 2024)
F-04-24 Addendum to the Development Charges Background Study (May 9, 2024)
Committee of the Whole Meeting (May 13 and 14, 2024)
Regular Meeting of Council (May 21, 2024)
The March 22 background study recommended increasing development charges, based on the cost of future capital projects.
The May 9 addendum made a change to exclude a number of projects that may not happen within the 10-year timeframe of the bylaw from the cost calculation. Page 9:
The result is to lower development charges by about 15%. Page 23:
More
Burlington to lower fees to get more housing built. Ashley Newport, Insauga.
Minutes from the Committee of the Whole Meeting on May 13 and 14. Video from May 14.
Slides by Michelle Diplock of the West End Home Builders’ Association. Includes this quote from an Urbanation press release in April: “The GTHA new condominium market reported 1,461 sales in Q1-2024, the lowest quarterly total since the Global Financial Crisis in Q1-2009 (884 sales). Outside of that brief period in early 2009, new condominium sales haven’t been this low since the late-1990s. Sales were down 71% when compared to the latest 10-year average for Q1 periods.”