‘Tools and levers’

Dear Editor:

RE: Not what people think, Sept. 24.

I’d like to offer a rebuttal to publisher Dave Adsett’s piece about local politicians and the topic of housing. This housing crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. Every tier of government needs to get involved to ensure we are building for the needs of today and tomorrow. Adsett’s editorial ignores the tools and levers that lower tier municipalities have at their disposal to shore up housing in Centre Wellington.

One tool: zoning. This is completely on the lower tier municipality to zone areas of the town to ensure good growth. It’s completely their job to ensure we don’t pave over vital farmland, allow for infill densification in areas already on  municipal services. A good example is the initiative to block 446 homes being built near Belwood. This is on the municipality to block this so taxpayers don’t see sharp rises in property taxes due to a developer’s poor planning and desire to have taxpayers foot the bill on a new wastewater plant and operation not near any existing services.

A second example: developer charges. Lower tier municipalities can increase or reduce these charges to encourage or discourage specific types of home builds. We ought to be looking more into this to encourage developers to build the types of homes that Centre Wellington needs. These developer charges can amount to over $100,000 per home build. 

And we’ve seen that with the reduction or elimination of HST on new builds, local developers will pass the cost savings on to buyers.

John Mifsud,
Fergus