Report to: General Committee Report
Date: December 1, 2008
SUBJECT: Development Charges
Indexing – January 1, 2009
PREPARED BY: Kevin Ross, extension 2126
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT the report titled “Development Charges Indexing – January 1, 2009” be
received;
AND THAT Council approve an increase in development charges of 7.74%,
effective January 1, 2009;
AND THAT Council approve the application of the increase to both the
Town Wide Soft services (under the 2004 Development Charge by-law) as well as
the Area Specific and Town Wide Hard services (under the 2008 Development
Charge by-laws);
AND THAT staff be directed to do all
things necessary to give effect to this report.
1. Purpose 2. Background 3. Discussion 4.
Financial 5. Environmental
BACKGROUND:
2004 Development Charge By-laws
Section 15 of the Town’s Development Charge
by-laws, enacted August 31, 2004, states that “the development charges referred
to in Schedule “B” shall be adjusted semi-annually without amendment to this
by-law, commencing on the first day of January and the first day of July, of
each year commencing January 1, 2005, in accordance with the most recent change
in the index (prescribed under the Development Charges Act) Statistics Canada
Quarterly, Construction Price Statistics (Catalogue No. 62-007)”.
In accordance with the by-law it is recommended
that the Town Wide Soft development charges be indexed by 7.74%. This represents the increase in the
Statistics Canada Quarterly, Construction Price Statistic for non-residential
buildings in Toronto
for the second and third quarters of 2008.
The new Town Wide Soft development charges
effective January 1, 2009
will be:
Below is a history of the indexes approved by
Council since the by-laws were enacted.
2008 Development Charge By-laws
Section 15 of the Town’s Development
Charge by-laws, enacted on June 24, 2008, states that “The development charges referred to in Schedules “B-1” and “B-2"
shall be adjusted semi-annually without amendment to this by-law, on the first
day of January and the first day of July, of each year, commencing July 1,
2008, in accordance with the most recent change in the Statistics Canada
Quarterly, Construction Price Statistics
(Catalogue No. 62-007)”.
In accordance with the by-law it is
recommended that the Town Wide Hard and Area Specific Development charges
included in the 2008 Background Study be indexed by 7.74%. This represents the increase in the Statistics
Canada Quarterly, Construction Price Statistic for non-residential buildings in
Toronto for the
second and third quarters of 2008. The
compounded indexed increase in the 2008 by-laws since their enactment in June
2008 is 11.59%.
The new Town Wide Hard and Area
Specific Development charges effective January 1, 2009 are shown below.
FINANCIAL
CONSIDERATIONS
The Construction Price Index
includes costs associated with the construction of industrial, commercial and
institutional buildings which more closely aligns with the costs incurred by
the Town of Markham
for these services. Indexing the Town’s Development Charges on a semi-annual
basis will partially mitigate the impact of inflationary increases on future
growth-related costs.
The Construction Price Index for the
second and third quarters of 2008 had a marked increase mainly as a result of
higher labour and fuel costs, as well as material price increases, in
particular steel.