Halton Hills Newspapers

Independent & Free Press (Georgetown, ON), 16 Apr 2008, p. 5

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

G E O R G E T O W N 245 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-2996 20th Anniversary Sale 20% OFF EVERY PURCHASE April 16th - 20th 39 Main St. S. Downtown Georgetown YOUR CURVES WILL AMAZE YOU. 0% SERVICE FEE -- ONE DAY ONLY!!!! Book Now 905-702-0418 Attn: Ladies of Georgetown Wednesday April 23rd - 8:00 AM 8:00 PM Please help us celebrate our 6th Anniversary !! New Visitors will enter a Free Draw for 3 month membership. There will be games, prizes, tours and refreshments... Meet the staff and see how the circuit works. Become a member and pay 0% Service Fee for this day only. This is the only time this year we will extend this offer so act fast. Call for your appointment today! Since opening in April 2002 we have worked with over 4000 women for a stunning total loss of 10,520 pounds and 11,537 inches! We have helped women of all ages, sizes and abilities lead healthier, stronger more enjoyable lives and we are very proud of our record of excellent customer service. Our new state of the art Smart equipment will provide you with all of the advantages of a personal trainer without any of the prohibitive cost!! Open House Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5 While the Regions financial gurus have crunched the numbers and managed to reduce the majority of the proposed development charge (DC) hikes, local builders say theres still room for improvement. This is what the Regions administration and finance committee heard at its meeting April 9, when staff presented the revisions made to the DCs in response to public input. DCs are levied by municipalities to recover growth-related costs associated with things like roads, water and sewer infrastructure needed to service new development. At a meeting held last month, the munici- pality was told by local developers and cham- bers of commerce that the proposed substantial DC increases will be a big turn-off to business- es looking to locate in Halton. Although the new proposed DC for ware- housing/distribution businesses has been brought down from $18.59 per square foot to $13.65 per square foot (region-wide DC), Lyn Townsend said the numbers still dont make sense. The lawyer, who spoke on behalf of a group of non-residential developers, pointed out the new rate is exactly the same as what retail developments would have to pay. Distribution centres do not generate the same needs for service as retail, she said. This is not what we had hoped to achieve. She noted the policy would have a dramatic impact on Milton and Halton Hills and some effect on Burlington and Oakville. She went on to deem the Regions new pro- posed 30 per cent discount for manufactur- ing/office developments which would see those companies pay a reduced rate of $9.55 per square foot (region-wide) an acceptable solution. The committee also heard from Michael Bowman, who spoke on behalf of residential developers Tribute Communities and the Metrontario Group. While he said Region staff has made some positive changes to some of the DCs, he took issue with the fact his clients could still be faced with a 101 per cent DC increase to build in Oakvilles uptown core. He explained the huge hike is not consistent with current planning policies that encourage the type of high-density development his clients are proposing. Currently the Region charges Halton-wide DCs for roads and general services and area- specific DCs for water and wastewater, with the latter fees being higher in Halton Urban Structure Plan (HUSP) areas where rapid devel- opment is taking place, like Milton, north Oakville and the Milton/Halton Hills 401 corri- dor. A background study prepared on the topic proposes region-wide DCs for all services. If these kinds of fees were to be implemented, the DC to develop a home in a non-HUSP area could go from $13,677 to $27,474. Another public meeting will be held on the proposed DCs Wednesday, April 30 at 9:30 a.m. at the Halton Regional Centre in Council Chambers. A final proposal will then be presented to the administration and finance committee at its meeting Wednesday, May 21 and then on to regional council Wednesday, May 28. For more information visit www.halton.ca. Region makes changes to DC bylaw to appease developers MELANIE HENNESSEY Special to The IFP

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy