A foundation

Apartment building basement lifts October stats

It was quite a headline. New home construction— single-family homes, multiresidential units and secondary suites—had been averaging fewer than 10 homes a month. Then, in October, the total surged to 127.

Was this the long-awaited, much-heralded revival of the County’s homebuilding market? After decades of declining construction, had the market finally hit bottom— and begun to rebound?

Alas, the headline number tells a more complicated story.

In fact, the County issued permits for just seven new single-family homes in October— consistent with the sluggish pace of homebuilding in the County over the past two years. Notably, none will be connected to a municipal waterworks system. The permits include one home with a declared construction value of $10 million and three mobile homes—but that is a subject for another day.

A permit for a seven story1 20-unit apartment building at Base 31 skewed the numbers radically in October.

Base31’s planned seven-storey rental apartment building at County Road 22 and Kingsley Road, will bring 120 homes to the community, with 10 per cent (12 units) designated affordable.

Construction is at the foundation stage under a conditional building permit; the full apartment building permit has not yet been issued.

It is a welcome development. It promises to boost the rental housing inventory in Picton and the County.

It may be too early, however, to count it as an inflection point in the County’s homebuilding trajectory—for the underlying trend remains steadfastly locked at fewer than 100 new single family homes per year across the entire County.

Success here could pave the way for more homes to be sold and built, renewing the appeal of County living.

In the meantime, however, the municipality must generate revenue from development—to pay for the services these folks will need. Here the story gets a bit more complicated.

Shire Hall has issued a conditional building permit for the foundation, not the apartment building itself—a distinction that affects when the developer must pay development and waterworks connection charges.

According to Cristal Laanstra, the County’s Director of Development Services, the project is expected to generate $1.1 million in development charges and $1.3 million in waterworks connection charges. Neither amount has yet been paid.

The two charges follow different payment schedules.

For qualifying rental housing, Ontario legislation spreads development charges over six annual instalments, beginning when an occupancy permit is issued, or the building is first occupied, whichever comes first.

The waterworks connection charges, $1.3 million, are payable when the building permit is issued. So far, however, “Base31 possesses a conditional building permit to permit construction of the foundation,” according to Laanstra. “Full payment of the connection fees will occur upon receipt of the full building permit submission.”