GENERAL COMMITTEE
	TO:	Mayor and Members of Council
	FROM:	Jim Baird, Commissioner of Development Services Andy Taylor, Commissioner of Corporate Services
	PREPARED BY:	Jamie Bosomworth, Manager of Strategy and Innovation John Wright, Director, Building Standards Development Services Commission
	DATE OF MEETING:	2008-Dec-8
	SUBJECT:	Approval Report, Amendments to Development Fee, Building Fee and Town Wide Fee By-laws Development Services Commission

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Report titled “Approval Report, Amendments to Development Fee, Building Fee and Town Wide Fee By-laws, Development Services Commission" dated December 8, 2008, be received:

And that the Record of the Public Meeting held on November 18, 2008, with respect to the proposed amendments to the Development, Building and Town Wide Fee By-laws be received;

And that the amendment to the “Tariff of Fees for Processing Planning Applications,” By-law 211-83, substantially in the form attached as Attachment "A", be enacted;

And that By-law 2007-268 be repealed and the attached “By-law respecting Construction, Demolition and Change of Use Permits and Inspections,” attached as Attachment “B”, be enacted;

And that the amendment to Town Wide By-law 2002-276, substantially in the form attached as Attachment “C”, be enacted;

And that the By-laws come into force and take effect on January 1, 2009.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to propose amendments to Development Fee By-law 211-83 respecting development applications, Building Fee By-law 2007-268 for building permit applications and Fee By-law 2002-276 for general services and documents. The purpose of the by-laws and associated fees is to ensure that development processing related costs are covered by application fees and are not a burden on the property tax rate. The proposed 2009 general rate increase for Planning/Urban Design fees is 7%, for Engineering fees is 4% and Building fees is 8.4%. Certain adjustments in the fee structure are also recommended, as outlined in this report as well as changes to printing costs of documents being sold to customers.

BACKGROUND:

At the October 20, 2008 General Committee meeting a report titled “Development Fee, Building Fee and Town Wide Fee By-laws, Development Services Commission”, authorized a public meeting be held to consider the proposed increase in fees associated with the Development Fee By-law and the Building Fee By-law. Budget Committee on November 17 was also presented with information related to forecasting and budgeting and multi-year reserve balances. Notices of the public meeting identifying a 4% increase in fees were advertised in the local papers as well as sent to representatives of the building and development community and members of the Developers Round Table Group. Since the discussion at the November 17 Budget Committee and the October 20 General Committee, Staff have further analysed the fee model related to the Building Department and Planning/Urban Design Department and are proposing additional fee increases for these two departments. A subcommittee of the Developers Round Table Group met with staff and after being presented with the fee model indicated their general concurrence that the proposed fee increases are reasonable. The amended proposal was also forwarded to the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). A public meeting was held on November 18, 2008 identifying these changes. There was no objection raised at the public meeting.

OPTIONS/DISCUSSION:

Changes to Planning/Urban Design Department Fees

When evaluating the costs associated with Planning Studies within the fee model, staff have generally attributed 90% of the cost to Development Charges and 10% to the tax component. Committee suggested staff consider attributing the 10% tax component to Development fees. Staff have reviewed this option with the Town’s consultant Hemson Consulting, and they agreed this cost could be attributable to development applications. As planning studies directly benefit and establish the policy framework for development applications, there is justification for this change. For 2009 this cost totals $290,000 which relates to an additional increase of 3% for a total increase for Planning/Urban Design fees of 7%.

No change in fees for certain application types to the Development Fees

Within the Development Fee By-law, Staff are not proposing to change the increases to the Engineering Department fees, (they will remain at 4%). As a reminder from the October 20 report, Staff are proposing to maintain the fees for minor variances and heritage applications at current levels, as generally the applicants are local home owners and further increases may become a deterrent to filing of applications and in-turn result in construction without the necessary Town approvals. The urban design fee (5.1% of the cost of landscape works) for review and approval of site plans and subdivisions, the engineering fee (5.1% of the cost of public works) for review and approval of site plan drawings and subdivision drawings and the fee associated with residential service connection (16% of the cost of public works) will also remain the same. Any cost increases in construction will be captured on the basis of percentage fee based on actual construction costs.

Staff are proposing to add a recirculation fee for zoning and official plan amendments. This fee is currently not in the by-law and we have experienced this past year some zoning and official plan amendments that require recirculation. There is staff time associated with this task so staff are prosing this additional fee.

Changes to Building Fees

The body of the new by-law remains substantively unchanged. The fee schedules include the following changes:

1. Except as noted below, staff recommends an increase of 8.4% to the fee multipliers and most of the flat fees contained in Table 1 of Schedule “A”. This fee was originally proposed at 4% through in the October 20, 2008 report which did not include four deferred positions. Staff recommends these positions be reinstated into the model and any revenue over runs will be attributed to the reserve. These positions relate to an increase of 4.4%, totally 8.4% increase.

2. The minimum fee has been increased to $100 from $60 for any application. At this level, the fee falls short of full cost recovery, but accounts for the price sensitivity among proponents of small construction projects.

3. Fee refund provisions have been adjusted to eliminate refunds for amounts less than $500, and to make refunds for issued permits that do not proceed to inspections and permits that are “ready to issue” consistent. These changes are intended to capture the costs associated with fee refunds and to discourage applicants from filing applications without the owner’s authorization.

4. An additional fee of $200 payable when a Stop Work Order is issued. This offsets the related inspection and administrative costs.

5. Introduction of a $200 fee for information required by day nursery operators and operators of premises licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. This fee is required to offset the related inspection and administrative costs.

6. Where projects are phased, requiring multiple permits, the fee for each phase is increased from $200 to $500 to offset the associated administrative costs.

7. Maximum Conditional Permit fee increased from $1500 to $2000. This fee is required to offset the related administrative costs of issuing conditional permits.

8. Fee for inspection subsequent to a project being suspended or deemed incomplete increased from $150 to $200. This increase is required to offset the related inspection and administrative costs of revisiting back files.

9. Demolition fees for non-residential buildings changed from $0.09/m² to a flat rate of $500 and the demolition fee for residential buildings increased from $156 to $200. This offsets the related inspection and administrative costs.

10. Emergency power systems are rarely proposed independently of other construction, but the $222 fee for such installations does not recover the related inspection and administration costs. Accordingly, the fee for independent emergency power systems is increased to $500.

11. Consolidation and simplification of some mechanical fee classes set out in Table 1. This is to rationalize and simplify the schedule by eliminating distinctions among occupancy classes that have no fee implications.

Changes to Town Wide Fee By-law

There are no additional changes from those that were introduced in the October 20 report proposed within the Town Wide Fee By-law. As a reminder, the October 20 report identified, that Staff have reviewed fees associated with compliance letters, publication of maps and schedules and general photocopying identified in the Town Wide Fee By-law. We have not increased these fees for some time now and after including in-direct costs into our overall costs for doing this work, Staff are proposing to increase the following fees:

Description	Original Fee	Proposed Fee
Swimming Pool Enclosure Permit	$50	$60
Engineering Compliance Letter	$110	$130
Geomatics Custom Mapping	$60/hr	$75/hr
Municipal Address Change	$500	$600
Photocopying	$1/first 3 pages & $1/each subsequent page	$1/each page
Street Map (colour)	$15	$25
Zoning Map	$15	$25
Municipal Address Map	$15	$25
Official Plan Schedules	$15	$25
Subdivision Status Chart	$30	$50

These revenue changes will be monitored as part of future fee bylaw updates to eliminate any redundancies in cost recovery.

Public Consultation

The Notice of the public meeting identified an overall increase of 4% for most components of the Development and Building fees. As Staff are now proposing modifications for the Planning/Urban Design component of the Development fee by-law and the Building fee by-law the Town Solicitor suggested Staff report back to Committee identifying the reasons for the change and to notify any interested parties. This report identifies the reason for these changes and Staff will notify representatives of the building and development community through BILD and the Developers Round Table Group, including notice of this report to General Committee.

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The Finance Department has been working closely with Development Services Commission staff to ensure proper direct and indirect cost recovery and to incorporate the results into the proposed 2009 operating budget.

Increased fees are required in 2009 to cover the projected increase in costs over the 2008 base. These increases are a result of projected 2009 salary and benefit increases, general inflation (CPI index was 3.5% for year ending August 2008) and capital investments. The proposed 2009 general rate increase for the Planning/Urban Design component of the Development By-law is 7% for the Engineering component 4% and for Building Fees 8.4%.

BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:

The Town Solicitor was consulted in determining additional appropriate notice requirements.

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment “A” Amendment to Fee By-law 211-83

Attachment “B” By-law respecting Construction, Demolition and Change of Use Permits and Inspections

Attachment “C” Amendment to Fee By-law 202-276

Jim Baird, M.C.I.P., R.P.P. Commissioner of Development Services

Andy Taylor Commissioner of Corporate Services

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