Consider This

The post about a town agreement with St. Andrew's College for deferment of Development Charges (DC's) was a lot of work to write. I had weasel wording of the Strategic plan that allows the town to vary principles. I also had tables of figures. It kept coming out in a wall of words. After trying a number of times to change that I decided to leave it until this morning and touch a few buttons. I'm always leary about doing that in case I lose the whole thing. Well guess what. I arose this morning with the intent of discovering the abracadabra. I lost the whole thing. Now I have to start again.

There was considerable interest in the post and a number of comments. It just occurred to me I might have lost them as well. Oh well...stuff happens.

The gist of it is, staff are recommending an agreement be extended that provides for deferral of Development Charges for construction at St. Andrew's College. The original agreement was signed in 2002. New construction is proposed.

No-one on the current Council can speak to the rationale for the agreement. It came as a surprise. I am not aware of another. The deferment is until such time as use of the property is changed or the property is sold. There is a law that allows the municipality to make such an agreement. I did not know that either. The subject has never come up.

On the other hand, during the last term, collecting development charges from the Separate School Board for the construction of St. Max High School on Wellington Street was an issue. The Board pointed out no other municipality charges school boards for DC's. Richmond Hill's DC Bylaw excludes school boards and other public entities. The Town refused to relent. There was at least one Councillor who must have known about the agreement with St. Andrew's.

The Board appealed the town's decision. Not on collection of DC's but on the amount. They argued the town had over-valued the property therefore the amount required to be paid was too high. The town was taking cash in lieu of parks.

The Board had legal counsel. The town retained legal counsel and off we went to the OMB, jointly spending more of the taxpayers' hard earned dollars. The Town lost the argument. We had to return money AND pay the legal fee.

That was another one of those times when I was not in accord with the majority of a Council decision.

Taking DC's from another tax supported body made no sense to me. The town's decision with the Separate School board was relevant to the discussion on deferment of DC's for St Andrew's College. Montessori Schools pay DC's. They too are private schools.

The decision was not to recommend the agreement with St.Andrew's College be extended. It will come forward next Tuesday for ratification.