Lot Levy History

Anonymous said...
First the diamond is 600K now it's 1.7M. Then apparently we need to buy property for the diamond except we already own land for it. Then we promise to start building it and then it gets deferred. Now we're not sure if we want to build it at all because it's so expensive but we can't spend the money on other town needs because we have to retun it.Geesh! Why didn't council start with something a little easier like solving world hunger before moving straight into baseball fields?

Development charge levies changed substantially over the years. There were none when Regency Acres and Aurora Heights were built.

Other town requirements were also different. Front yards only were sodded. Driveways were gravel. Culverts and ditches provide storm drainage. Electricity was supplied by overhead wires and the road was a ribbon of asphalt, two lanes wide. Sidewalks were not provided though school sites and parkland were taken.

The town did have an engineer on the payroll. I heard he was a chemical engineer. His name was Stan Murray. I mention it because I remember it. I came to Aurora when Regency Acres was built. Annual taxes on my house were $260. They were higher than houses on the gracious tree-lined streets in Old Aurora.

There were at least seven models in our subdivision.Two-storey semis and the Princess Margaret model cost less than $11,000. The down payment was about $500. Apartment rents in the city were about $125 a month. Consumers Gas would provide a second mortgage, if a buyer opted for gas heating

The federal government used housing as an economic stimulant in those days. New home-owners bought new furniture.... planted gardens.... bought reliable cars to commute...decorated homes at Christmas. Regency was built in two phases. Before the second, the government reduced mortgage interest and in turn the Developer dropped prices by $1,000. No more semis were purchased and built.

Town water was from an aquifer. The sewage treatment plant was a tertiary system built in the mid-fifties in partnership with Collis Leather. Ontario Water Resources Commission had authority then. The tanning process was dumping toxins into the creek and that had to stop.

Capital projects were paid by debenture and Collis was still making payments when I was elected and reading my first budget.

By the time Wimpey built Orchard Heights, the town was demanding more. . We didn't have planning staff but we had Jack Reid and Associates, P.Eng. examining plans and advising. Roads had to be built to Department of Highway standards. Storm and Sanitary sewers were both underground, sidewalks on one side of a street and twenty-four month performance bonds provided. Boulevards for snow storage had to be provided. We went to underground wiring.

Yards had to be sodded back and front , driveways paved and lot levies steadily climbed. Jack Reid scratched his head once and wondered who would be able to afford to buy these houses. Lot levies would not be paid from developer profits.We all understood that.

Years went by. Demands grew. It was like found money. It could not be used for anything but the specified needs created by growth. But it meant facilities were provided that politicians could never in their wildest dreams have heretofore proposed to be paid for by debenture debt.

Developers paid willingly. Charges grew to thousands of dollars. Provincial sales tax and federal goods and service tax entered the picture. A tally about twenty years ago came up with a figure of over thirty-thousand dollars in taxes ,including development charges, hidden in the price of every new home built.

Market-value assessment came into being. Assessment is based on sale price. It means new owners pay property taxes on hidden taxes for ever after.

I have long had misgivings about development charges. Not shared by anyone else. Developers paid because time is money and in any case the charge becomes part of the overhead. Fellow politicians thought I was demented. Why spoil a good thing. New home owners had no idea of the unfairness and furthermore didn't want to know. They need to believe their decision to buy a new home is the right one. What could they do about it after the fact anyway?

But levies kept rising. As land prices increased, building houses at competitive prices became progressively more difficult . The levy and the price serviced of land, eats up more and more of the cost of a home. Lots became smaller, houses rose higher and rooms became smaller. Prices zoomed upward and product shrunk.

Developers took their problem to the province. The building industry represents a significant share of jobs and economy of the province. The province had to listen.

New regulations were created to control lot levies. Towns have to prepare a five year forecast to establish level of service and the need for new facilities to maintain the level. Vehicles and equipment and everything else extra to serve increased population from new homes must be specified.

The levy must be calculated on the basis on ninety-per-cent of the estimated cost of a facility. Existing residents are expected to share the facility therefore they must pay ten per cent of the cost.

Our last forecast and master recreation plan identified the need for more than one baseball diamond. Successive capital budgets have concurrently identified the needs. The figure for the baseball diamond never changed in the five years of forecast.

The cost of building a diamond is one thing. Building a community park sufficient to accommodate a baseball diamond is separate and in addition. That's what changed the estimated price. The land chosen by council, adjacent to the Stronach recreation facility has surplus material stored there which needed to be moved. Electricity, drainage and water supply are a necessity. Driveway access to the diamond must be provided. All of these amenities must be added to the cost.

We are currently at the end of a five year forecast period. We are preparing a new forecast to justify new levy calculations. We have not yet provided the diamond identified as a need five years ago.

Our new calculations must be submitted soon for approval by the province.

If we don't build what we said we needed and took money for, the chances of having it approved in the next round are zero to nil.

The need has never been challenged. We obtained the means to pay for it. It is approved in the budget. But if the Chief Administrative Officer gets the subliminal message from council and provides a different recommendation to the one already provided by Leisure Services Director, we might be pitched head first deep into doo-doo.

In a recent appeal, developers succeeded in taking funds back from York Region on the basis an actual cost for a project was not what had been forecast in the calculation of development charges. If it happened at the Region, it can happen to us.

Our new round of calculations of D.C. levies may be less than they should be if we are unable by failing to provide the baseball facility we fail to establish a level of service to support them.

None of this stuff is easy to understand. In fact, it's bloody complicated. It's why we have professionals to provide advice and guidance to council. We pay a high cost for necessary expertise. If we can't acknowledge we need it, let alone heed it, our community will not be well- served.