Bruce County passed a new by-law that will boost development charges county-wide in the new year.
“Development Charges are fees collected from new development throughout the County and are used to fund the additional infrastructure costs that are required to provide County services,” Bruce County’s corporate services department shared in an email.
The new charges fall under the category of “growth-related studies.” Corporate services says that these studies are undertaken as new development occurs, to create plans like the Transportation Master Plan.
Other development charges come from categories including parks and recreation services, childcare services and ambulance services, among others.
Growth-related studies charges for single and semi-detached homes will be $273 effective January 1, bringing the total development charges to $7,938 for those types of homes. For non-residential spaces, growth-related studies charges will account for $0.12 per square foot, bringing the total charges to $3.06 per square foot.
For a 5,000 square-foot commercial space, that’s $15,300 in development charges.
Bruce County corporate services says charges for growth-related studies are new in the county, as they were only recently instated as an eligible development charge by a piece of provincial legislation earlier this year. Development charges were introduced in the County in late 2023.
The County website says without development charges, the fees needed to expand infrastructure and services are collected from current residents through property taxes. It states that development charges are payable once a building permit has been issued.
**this story was written by Julia DeJong, a 4th year journalism student at Carleton University, who is doing an internship with CKNXNewsToday.ca