The 28 per cent increase that had developers and housing experts up in arms this week was swiftly dropped to 11 per cent — and likely not for the reason you'd think.Ottawa staff have changed their recommendation for how much the city should charge in development fees, slashing the hike they initially proposed.
Essentially, cities add together the cost of infrastructure projects approved by councillors in certain overarching planning documents. Then they divide that by projected growth. Hemson Consulting Ltd. based its calculations on information from Statistics Canada, including historical data on the average number of people who live in a single home in Ottawa. That information didn't take into account that homes generally reach peak occupancy soon after they're built.
"Having me explain math isn't necessarily a good thing!" Baker joked to laughs around the committee table.After the meeting, interim general manager for planning Vivi Chi told CBC the review came up with better rates that will be "supportive of continued housing growth.""Sometimes in these massive, massive undertakings of spreadsheets, there could be some errors or some tweaking," she said. "So, we looked at whether they were in the right columns or not.
City lawyer Tim Marc told councillors if developers decide to challenge Hemson Consulting's numbers, he believes the city would win the appeal.