Talk to developers: Fogarty

Orillia councillor hopes to head off costly OMB
By SARA ROSS ORILLIA PACKET & TIMES August 300 2010
To prevent the potential loss of $2.1-million for the City of Orillia, Coun. Michael Fogarty is questioning if council and local developers could come to an agreement to adjourn the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing on development charges.
“Is there a way we can sit down with that group and figure out how we… can avoid the cost of the OMB hearing, a possible loss and again encourage growth and development?” Fogarty told The Packet & Times on Monday. “If we can be proactive on this thing, that’s really where I want to turn my attention to now.”
The comments come as council is preparing for a public meeting on the new development charges bylaw created to address a technicality that launched the OMB hearing.
Five developers are challenging the city before the OMB over a 21.2% increase in residential development charges council approved at the end of June 2009.
In their bid before the OMB, developers are basing their argument on a technicality.
Following a public meeting about the development charges, changes were made to the draft bylaw, but council didn’t consider whether to hold another public meeting to review those changes.
About $2 million in development charges collected since Aug. 1, 2009 could be at stake.
“I want to engage the developers again to see what we can do to adjourn this OMB hearing,” Fogarty said. “Are there consultations that can take place? Many of the developers are concerned with the methodology, how we come to the figures that we came to.”
Fogarty, who didn’t support the initial bylaw because of the increase, said he will vote against the new one.
“I’ll still vote against the new one because they aren’t changing all that much,” he said. “I don’t believe that in this economic environment we should be raising development charges. We should be looking at being as competitive as possible against our neighbours, so we can attract investment.”
Coun. Ralph Cipolla said the question is if “growth pays for growth,” or if residents pay for growth.
“If the OMB sides that we did make an error, then we are being held hostage for $2.1-million that the citizens of Orillia have to pay instead of the developers who have benefited from the infrastructure that we’ve put in place over the years,” he said. “We’re being held hostage again.”
At a public meeting on Monday, council approved an updated development charges background study and a public meeting for Sept. 20.
The study details the need for a development charge, growth forecast, and calculates the fee amount. The study is part of the process of passing a new development charge, city treasurer Bob Ripley said after the meeting.
The new charge is slightly lower than the 21.2% increase passed in June 2009. There is a $6 difference for residential charges and a $4.15 difference for non-residential, states the study.
“This study is exactly the same as the previous study except its been updated for what’s happened at capital budget this year,” Ripley said.
The meeting will take place Sept. 20 during the regular council meeting.
“I imagine there will be some people from the development industry making some presentation to council and council will consider those and pass a bylaw that night, or sometime later,” Ripley said. “It could be passed that night if the developers don’t raise anything concrete and substainal.”
The development charges study will be made public on the city’s website on Sept. 2.