The County of Essex is moving forward with implementing development charges.
Council first deferred the discussion in Oct. 2025, but met on Wednesday with a report from administration offering a couple of options to consider for implementing the charges.
Development charges allow municipalities to levy fees on new projects to recover capital costs required to service growth such as roads, water and sewers - thereby reducing the financial impact on existing taxpayers.
Council ended up voting in favour of the option presented to them last October, which would see the bylaw over a five-year term that would take effect immediately, with charges being applied January 1, 2027, and charges increasing 25 per cent per year over four years.
Following a friendly amendment, council decided to start the rates on January 1, 2028, rather than in 2027.
Additional motions were presented by councillors, including ceasing all discussions of development charges, or deferring to future years - both of those motions failed.
According to administration, without this bylaw, existing property owners would continue to shoulder the financial burden of growth through their property taxes, and could mean an additional $200 or more on a home assessed at $350,000, to offset capital costs.
Joe Bachetti, deputy warden and Tecumseh's deputy mayor, put forward the motion to approve Option A. He says this was long overdue.
"I think we're the only ones... if not, the only one in the Province of Ontario, that doesn't enact these type of fees. And basically they're there to help cover costs of infrastructure so that growth pays for growth, and that the county residents that live here are not paying extra dollars."
Bachetti adds that he couldn't support the friendly amendment to delay until 2028.
"When you put a pause, we have to make up $63-million, that is approximately $200 per resident on a home valued at $350,000. So, those residents... they're struggling to afford groceries, and bills that are coming in, and basically a zero per cent development charge means $200 per household."
Meanwhile, Lakeshore mayor Tracey Bailey had put forward the motion to cease all conversations of development charges - which failed at the council table.
She says she's disappointed in the decision made.
"I think that it's a really difficult time in communities... the costs are going up everywhere, there's the introduction of new tax, food bank use is three times the use that it's ever been before... people are struggling and we know that in our community."
While many of the seven local municipalities have their own development charges, the county as a whole did not.
The bylaw applies county-wide and covers most services such as roads and libraries. Capital costs for the Sun Parlor Home facility, or affordable homes, are excluded.
Development charges will reach the full, 100 per cent rate as of 2031.
The development charges being proposed include approximately $8,500 for a single or semi-detached unit, with a lower charge for smaller unit types.