Building expectations

Community and economic development chief Neil Carbone welcomes developers and builders to a meeting last week with the aim of attracting more residential homebuilding in the County.

County tells developers and investors it is open for business

One thing was crystal clear—the County doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It will have to work harder, be more creative and demonstrate more flexibity if it wants builders and developers to invest in Prince Edward County again. Because they aren’t now—and they won’t come back until the development process changes.

Mayor Robert Quaiff, council members, the CAO, planning and development staff heard clearly from a gathering of regional developers and builders last week, that these folks simply don’t consider this community in their plans any longer. The process is too slow, unresponsive, unpredictable, rigid, unhelpful and much too expensive. In a competitive market they say, it is just too hard and too costly to build in the County. So they invest elsewhere.

Mayor Quaiff asked for the meeting—to help him understand the obstacles builders and developers face when they work in the County.

“I want you here,” said Quaiff. “I get it. It is one of my top priorities to see development happen in Prince Edward County.”

Most have heard this before. They will need to see meaningful change before they look at investing in the County again.

It is surely a hopeful sign, however, that a dozen or more builders were willing to spend a couple hours on a Wednesday evening talking about the challenges of building in the County. Another is that the County has a new point person, dedicated to working directly with builders, developers and investors to help them navigate the County’s regulatory and planning process.

Peter Moyer was appointed to head development services for the County earlier this year. Moyer is an engineer with considerable development experience. He acknowledged he has a big job and an important challenge ahead of him.

He’s heard plenty of concerns in his first few months in the County. “It takes too long to get answers.” “Lack of consistency.” “Requirements are a moving target.” “Expensive.” “Not development friendly”

“It is difficult to balance regulations and what’s good for the community as a whole,” said Moyer. “But that is what we strive to do. And we will get better at it.”

He said the County needs to begin with some basics. He wants to document municipal building standards in a simple and easy-to-use format and then distribute it widely and make it easily accessible. Such a manual, he says, will list fundamental rules and expectations for anyone looking to build in the

Then he wants to go a step further and provide development guidelines—a more indepth description of procedures and requirements of the County’s development process.

This will, however, require money. It will prove the first test of council’s intention to encourage development in the County.

“We are looking for resources from council to fill this information gap,” said Moyer.

He wants to go much further—working to enhance the County’s geographical information system (GIS) to put more data at developers’ fingertips and reveal deficiencies.

“Right now, if a developer proposes a 300- unit subdivision on our water system, they need to do a study to see if we have the capacity,” said Moyer. “We should know this before they ask.”

FRUSTRATION ABOUNDS
For some, these are promising words—but most remain skeptical that Moyer can eliminate the bottleneck in the development process. They want Moyer reporting directly to the County’s manager, James Hepburn. There was no undertaking by Mayor Quaiff or anyone else in the room that this would happen—but rather a reaffirmation that the County was prepared and ready to do business differently.

The County’s community and economic development officer, Neil Carbone, is also stepping up to provide information and assistance in streamlining the process. Carbone wants to encourage “tire kicking opportunities,” that is, sitting down with developers, investors and relevant municipal experts to consider what-if scenarios without initiating a cumbersome and expensive planning process with little insight into the likelihood of success.

There were a great many suggestions from the group, ranging from sharing costs on studies and infrastructure works to extending development and connection charges over time rather than one lump payment when the building permit is issued. Others want more flexibility in terms of phasing development, to enable builders to track the pace of prospective homeowners rather than an arbitrary schedule developed by the County’s planning department.

Some urged the County to interpret provincial rules less rigidly. They noted that the County has many unique geographic, economic and social features. They argue the County needs to assert its support and defence of these features, rather than robotically follow rules established in Toronto for the entire province.

Some are frustrated that the County has so little expertise and knowledge in-house—that too much of what is considered basic information must be sent out for an external study—at the developer’s cost.

Others want to see a more liberal view of development in rural area. Currently, the County discounts development charges to encourage new-home building on municipal services. But these developers say the County is missing out on an important market opportunity—that many prospective homebuyers are attracted to the County’s rural beauty, but discouraged by its rules and opaque processes.

Mayor Quaiff assured the gathering he and council were listening—they understand that in a community in which nearly the entire taxand waterworks-user-base are residential homeowners, it is necessary that development happen quicker—to keep up with the rising costs of municipal services.

Quaiff went further, committing that his council would find the resources to streamline development processes, expand planning department capacity and implement made-in-the-County policies that reflect the unique character of this community.

“We must make a financial commitment to this sector,” said Quaiff. “Some money must be put into this.”

The County’s budget deliberations begin next week. Last week, council learned from its waterworks rate consultant that if it hopes to keep up with its 20-year plan to maintain this system, users will have to endure a 50 per cent increase in water bills over the next five years.

County residents will wait and see if any of this focuses council’s attention on the need for a faster pace of development.