Essex council wants to let the public know the town is open for business.
On Monday, council voted in favour of waiving two-thirds of development fees for a proposed apartment building at the corner of Victor St. and Laird Ave.
Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche says council also decided against collecting waste-water fees until 18-months after completion of the project and feels council made the right decison.
"We would still charge the development charges to this particular project, apartment building that they're looking at on Victor St. here in ward one," says Meloche. "But at the same time we would just defer the charges so that it would be 18-months after completion of construction that those charges would be due."
He believes deferring the collection of the waste-water fees up front will make a difference.
"They total about $130,000 approximately is what the calculation is right now that may vary a little bit by a couple thousand either way depending on how many units it ends up being in the end," says Meloche.
Meloche says he's hopeful the project moves forward.
"There's a number of incentives that we have with CIP that we want to be able to help them out that they may not be able to get in other communities," he says. "We've done our homework here too. Our administration has done their homework and I've talked to a number of mayors and deputy mayors from across the county, they're getting a good deal here."
Council first discussed waiving the fees at its February 19th council meeting.
At that time the developer claimed plans would be scrapped if 100% of the fees were not covered.
Still no word if the developer plans to move forward with the $14-million, six storey, 57 unit apartment complex after council's latest decision.