Development charges help to offset the cost related to growth. Council has chosen to waive charges for Commercial, Industrial and Institutional as well as 100% percent in the Harrow Settlement Area until Dec 2021. In 2021 our council and administration need to find over 450k which is still not funded or absorbed for the waiver of charges in 2020.
Come January 2022 development charges in Harrow will return 25% per year. Although waiving development charges might entice developers it is really not sustainable for the long run. I am glad to see we have some shovels in the ground and our municipality really is seeing healthy growth, a 57% increase from 2019!
At least every five years, the municipality conducts a development charges background study to forecast the community’s future residential and non-residential growth to determine infrastructure needs and costs. This information is used to calculate the amount of money that new development needs to pay in order to cover new infrastructure and services. The most recent background study was performed in 2019 and new charges were adopted with a Development Charges By-law in August 2019.
