West Kelowna city council has received a report that recommends increasing development cost charges (DCCs) for new builds in the city by more than 40 per cent.
“The rates we are currently charging have fallen significantly behind. The less that we are collecting from the developers means more that the taxpayers are subsidizing,” said Allen Fillion, City of West Kelowna’s director of engineering and public works.
“(The proposed increase is) just ensuring that growth is paying its fair share and it’s not subsidized by the taxpayer.”
The increase, if approved, will see the current $18,000 cost raised to roughly $26,000 per single-family household.
The City of West Kelowna said the steep increase in the DCCs is to help maintain infrastructure with a growing population.
The report also suggests that the DCCs for parks needs to be increased by a few thousand dollars as well, to somewhere between $6,900 and $8,700 from $4,700 for a single-family home.
That increase is directly tied to the massive jump in land value, especially for waterfront properties.
“Back in 2015, we had a 33 per cent assist factor for a developer, so really what that meant is they were paying 33 per cent of the cost to develop these parks,” said Fillion.
“Now we are saying, it’s more fair that developers are paying full cost for these parks because they are essentially needed for growth.”
West Kelowna’s city council supports the proposed hike and ays it will be consulting with development companies and the public before making any permanent changes to DCCs in the months ahead.
Comments