Spokes
12-27-2009, 10:07 AM
Development Charges
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Successful redevelopment of Uptown Waterloo means no more subsidies for builders
December 26, 2009
By Terry Pender, Record staff
http://media.therecord.topscms.com/images/89/a7/39ac79d84f72be1831c81ee28194.jpeg
WATERLOO — This city is poised to pass a milestone in the decade’s long struggle to redefine, redevelop and rejuvenate its downtown.
City planners believe there is now enough interest, momentum and optimism about their downtown’s future that developers should no longer be subsidized by taxpayers for building there.
On Jan. 1, the City of Waterloo ends a program that waived millions of dollars in fees for development in the core. It is the first city in this region to drop the waiver of downtown development charges since the programs were put in place in the 1990s.
Before building permits are issued, the fees — also called development charges — are collected by the city. Residential or commercial, big or small, fees are collected and used to help pay for infrastructure to service new growth.
In Waterloo for every single-detached or semi-detached house built, the developer pays $13,372 to the city, almost half of which will be spent on roads to service new homes.
For apartment buildings, the development charge is $9,302 per unit. Non-residential developments pay $51 per square metre in development charges. On a large project these fees can add millions to the cost.
But for more than a decade, the City of Waterloo waived those fees to spur development in the city centre.
“There has been a growing number of projects in the Uptown,” Ryan Mounsey, an urban planner with the city, said. “The demand is very high and there is no longer any need to maintain some financial incentives to attract developers to the Uptown.”
Developers have rushed to get approvals in place before the fee-exemption for downtown projects.
“It is a very good news story,” Mounsey said.
Next year, there could be as many as four construction cranes near Erb Street — two on the BarrelYards site, one at the Knox Presbyterian Church and another at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
“That BarrelYards site will be under a constant state of construction for many years, and so the first phase to go will be the two 21-storey live-work units,” Mounsey said.
That will be the site of the largest redevelopment of a former industrial site in the region —1,008 apartments, 12 townhouses, 10 live-work units, a 280-room hotel, 230,000-square-feet of commercial-office-retail space, a park and 2,250 underground-parking spaces.
That area now has three buildings that have won awards for architecture: The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery and the addition that was put on the former Seagram’s building at Erb and Caroline, which now houses the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
“The expectations are very, very high for all other development,” Mounsey said.
About 20 years ago downtown Waterloo was hollowed out by the closing of four large industries. About 50 acres of former industrial land was left empty after Labatt’s, Seagrams, Canbar Exports and Sunar-Hauserman shut down.
At the same time, big-box stores started opening in the region, putting the downtown retailers, already competing with malls, under even more pressure.
But less than a generation after it was de-industrialized, central Waterloo is on the way to successful urban redevelopment.
By 1999, the City of Waterloo had exempted downtown projects from development charges.
Since then, a multi-residential building went up on William Street near City Hall, and an elder-care centre and townhouses were built on the site of Labatt Brewing near King and William streets. A complex for seniors was built on the old SunarHauserman property on Father David Bauer Drive.
The Seagram Lofts were constructed and the former Alexandra School was converted to housing. The old Waterloo Town Square Mall was chopped in half, Willis Way was extended and retail buildings constructed along the King Street sidewalks.
“There has been tremendous change and evolution in the Uptown and because it is such a compact core you notice that change,” Mounsey said.
The end of the program is not without problems.
Developers are rushing to get applications and building permits in place before the subsidies end. While developers do not pay the fees, the City of Waterloo must put an equal amount into a special reserve fund.
That amount could be as high as $13.7 million for 2008-2009. Waterloo city councillors must decide in the new year how they will come up with that amount of money.
It’s a challenge other city planners in this region are not facing.
“Uptown Waterloo has had a lot of success with redevelopment,” Janet Babcock, commissioner of planning services in Cambridge, said.
Cambridge and Kitchener will continue to exempt downtown projects from development charges.
A lot of factors came together to help in the rebirth of central Waterloo, Babcock believes.
First off, the Waterloo core is compact. And private benefactors have put money into specific projects — the Perimeter Institute, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
The burgeoning high-tech sector and the presence of two university campuses nearby also helps downtown Waterloo.
“If any municipality in Ontario knew the formula for regenerating core areas, I can guarantee you a lot of municipal planners and councillors would want to make sure they got that formula,” Babcock said.
tpender@therecord.com
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649321 (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649321)
http://www.lawmarketing.com/content/MoneyScale250.jpg
www.lawmarketing.com/content/MoneyScale250.jpg
Successful redevelopment of Uptown Waterloo means no more subsidies for builders
December 26, 2009
By Terry Pender, Record staff
http://media.therecord.topscms.com/images/89/a7/39ac79d84f72be1831c81ee28194.jpeg
WATERLOO — This city is poised to pass a milestone in the decade’s long struggle to redefine, redevelop and rejuvenate its downtown.
City planners believe there is now enough interest, momentum and optimism about their downtown’s future that developers should no longer be subsidized by taxpayers for building there.
On Jan. 1, the City of Waterloo ends a program that waived millions of dollars in fees for development in the core. It is the first city in this region to drop the waiver of downtown development charges since the programs were put in place in the 1990s.
Before building permits are issued, the fees — also called development charges — are collected by the city. Residential or commercial, big or small, fees are collected and used to help pay for infrastructure to service new growth.
In Waterloo for every single-detached or semi-detached house built, the developer pays $13,372 to the city, almost half of which will be spent on roads to service new homes.
For apartment buildings, the development charge is $9,302 per unit. Non-residential developments pay $51 per square metre in development charges. On a large project these fees can add millions to the cost.
But for more than a decade, the City of Waterloo waived those fees to spur development in the city centre.
“There has been a growing number of projects in the Uptown,” Ryan Mounsey, an urban planner with the city, said. “The demand is very high and there is no longer any need to maintain some financial incentives to attract developers to the Uptown.”
Developers have rushed to get approvals in place before the fee-exemption for downtown projects.
“It is a very good news story,” Mounsey said.
Next year, there could be as many as four construction cranes near Erb Street — two on the BarrelYards site, one at the Knox Presbyterian Church and another at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
“That BarrelYards site will be under a constant state of construction for many years, and so the first phase to go will be the two 21-storey live-work units,” Mounsey said.
That will be the site of the largest redevelopment of a former industrial site in the region —1,008 apartments, 12 townhouses, 10 live-work units, a 280-room hotel, 230,000-square-feet of commercial-office-retail space, a park and 2,250 underground-parking spaces.
That area now has three buildings that have won awards for architecture: The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery and the addition that was put on the former Seagram’s building at Erb and Caroline, which now houses the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
“The expectations are very, very high for all other development,” Mounsey said.
About 20 years ago downtown Waterloo was hollowed out by the closing of four large industries. About 50 acres of former industrial land was left empty after Labatt’s, Seagrams, Canbar Exports and Sunar-Hauserman shut down.
At the same time, big-box stores started opening in the region, putting the downtown retailers, already competing with malls, under even more pressure.
But less than a generation after it was de-industrialized, central Waterloo is on the way to successful urban redevelopment.
By 1999, the City of Waterloo had exempted downtown projects from development charges.
Since then, a multi-residential building went up on William Street near City Hall, and an elder-care centre and townhouses were built on the site of Labatt Brewing near King and William streets. A complex for seniors was built on the old SunarHauserman property on Father David Bauer Drive.
The Seagram Lofts were constructed and the former Alexandra School was converted to housing. The old Waterloo Town Square Mall was chopped in half, Willis Way was extended and retail buildings constructed along the King Street sidewalks.
“There has been tremendous change and evolution in the Uptown and because it is such a compact core you notice that change,” Mounsey said.
The end of the program is not without problems.
Developers are rushing to get applications and building permits in place before the subsidies end. While developers do not pay the fees, the City of Waterloo must put an equal amount into a special reserve fund.
That amount could be as high as $13.7 million for 2008-2009. Waterloo city councillors must decide in the new year how they will come up with that amount of money.
It’s a challenge other city planners in this region are not facing.
“Uptown Waterloo has had a lot of success with redevelopment,” Janet Babcock, commissioner of planning services in Cambridge, said.
Cambridge and Kitchener will continue to exempt downtown projects from development charges.
A lot of factors came together to help in the rebirth of central Waterloo, Babcock believes.
First off, the Waterloo core is compact. And private benefactors have put money into specific projects — the Perimeter Institute, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
The burgeoning high-tech sector and the presence of two university campuses nearby also helps downtown Waterloo.
“If any municipality in Ontario knew the formula for regenerating core areas, I can guarantee you a lot of municipal planners and councillors would want to make sure they got that formula,” Babcock said.
tpender@therecord.com
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649321 (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649321)