The City of Duncan will waive or reduce development cost charges for some new affordable rental housing that is being built in the city.
The city requires developers to pay DCCs for transportation, sewer, drainage, water, and parks infrastructure to offset the capital cost burden imposed by new development on the community.
Kyle Young, Duncan’s director of planning and sustainability, told council at its meeting on Aug. 19 that the Local Government Act enables a local government to waive or reduce DCCs for certain types of “eligible development”.
He said the most recent example of a DCC waiver or reduction on affordable housing is the new Duncan Manor redevelopment at 162 First St. where council reduced the total DCCs to be paid by the developer by 50 per cent.
“In order to expedite the process to seek the city’s approval to waive or reduce DCCs for affordable rental housing, a DCC waiver bylaw is being presented for council’s consideration so that a new bylaw is not required for each development,” Young said.
Young said affordable rental housing refers to housing that has a rental price that is at least 20 per cent below the market rental price or, in the case of rent geared to income, a rental price that does not exceed 30 per cent of the household income of the occupants, but the new bylaw will exclude housing developed directly by BC Housing or another provincial agency.
He said if council passes the new bylaw, it would mean that in the case of a 100-unit rental apartment building where 10 of the units meet the bylaw’s affordability criteria, the city may waive DCCs for all 10 affordable housing units.
“But In the case of a 100-unit rental apartment building where all of the units meet the bylaw’s affordability criteria, the city may waive DCCs for 50 of the units,” Young said.
Coun. Garry Bruce said he’s against reducing or waiving DCCs for new affordable rental housing because those reduced DCC costs will have to picked up by the city’s taxpayers.
"I know the intent is to make affordable housing more affordable, but I don’t think somebody else should be picking up the freight in this,” he said.
“I think every development should have to pay for the infrastructure that’s being used because it it being worn out and has to be replaced.”
Coun. Jenni Capps said she realizes the city will have to pick up the tab for the DCCs for these housing units, but she’s OK with that.
“This will take some of the burden off of the development community and anything we can do to make quality and affordable housing less of a burden, I’m generally going to be in favour of,” she said.
Coun. Mike McKinlay agreed with Bruce and said he doesn’t want to see taxpayers having to bear the financial brunt of building affordable housing.
“Everyone is having a hard time paying their taxes and if we’re going to start building a lot of affordable housing, while the infrastructure in this town is going down, it’s going to come onto our plate and that means we have to put it back to the taxpayer, and I can’t support that,” he said.
Coun. Carol Newington pointed out that not all the DCCs on affordable housing projects have to be reduced or waived by the city.
“I think we have to look at each individual project as they come along and not necessarily rubber stamp them and push them along,” she said.
Coun. Tom Duncan added that the idea is to reduce or waive the DCCs on units that are identified as affordable, so not all the costs of development will be put on taxpayers.
“In most cases, just 10 per cent of units in a housing project are considered affordable housing,” he said. “I don’t see this as a huge burden on the city.”
The motion passed, with McKinlay and Bruce opposed.
