Development charges are being frozen at the current rate in Windsor, but city council is leaving the door open to adjust down the road.
Council voted Monday in favour of a move to freeze development charges as part of a motion to extend the current development charges bylaw another five years, as it's set to expire on January 17, 2026.
A motion from Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie also called on administration to provide a yearly report to council for review and comment and potential new direction from council on development charges.
According to the administration, extending the bylaw for another five years does not prevent the city from passing a new DC bylaw during this five-year period.
Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie, chair of the development charges task force, says this is the prudent way forward to maintain the status quo but continue to monitor the landscape.
"I think everybody around the table on some level supports the notion that growth needs to be able to pay for growth; we need to do this sustainably," he says. "Given the uncertainty that we were facing, the task force thought it would be best to hit the pause button, maintain the status quo, and continue to monitor."
In its report to council, the city's development charges task force said uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariffs has led many developers to adopt a cautious "wait and see" approach, with some deciding to postpone projects.
Concern was also raised that municipalities are still waiting to see what the federal government is going to do when it comes to development charges.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says we control very little in the development process; we can't control the main input costs of labour, land, and the price of building materials.
"We can't control HST, which is applied by provincial and federal governments; the real mechanism we have is on the development charges front," he says. "So sending the signal, like we're going to do with the budget, that we're freezing development charges, that we're not going to put any more burden on the development community at this time, is the right signal to send."
Dilkens says we're dealing with an affordability issue, and the city doesn't want to add to that burden.
"If the economy changes in one year or two years from now, we don't have to wait five to go back and update the study; we can do that rather quickly," he says. "But right now at this point in time, it's incumbent on the city to play their role, which is making sure we're not putting any more burden on people as they are trying to build homes and trying to create development in the community, which of course helps create jobs as well."
Development charges are fees that cities collect from developers when they build new homes, businesses, or other buildings, and they help pay for infrastructure and services needed to support growth.
Those capital projects can include roads, sewer systems, fire services, libraries, and community centres.