Developers blast city for proposed fee hikes in Winnipeg

A City of Winnipeg committee got an earful from severaldevelopers who are angry about permit fee increases proposed in the upcoming budget.

Mike Moore,president of the ManitobaHome Builders'Association, told the property and development committee that the increases will costWinnipeg its competitive advantage against otherwestern Canadian cities.

Right now, the city remains one of the most economical to live in, but that "affordability is rapidly eroding," he said, addingtotal permitfees to build a 1,600-square-foothome will go up 62 per cent.

He noted the City of Winnipeg'sfee structure for permits hasn't changed since 2008, but he urged the committee to find an alternative to suddenly cranking up the rates.

Moore added thatnew housing costs are also rising due to newprovinciallegislation for warranties and electrical code changes alladding more to the priceof a new home.

In-fill projects hit hard

In-fill developments, something the city has been promoting to increase density in neighbourhoods and slow down theurban sprawl, will be hit particularly hard by the proposed feessaid a couple of other speakers at the committee meeting.

Jordan Sodomsky of Riverside Consulting saidsome fees for items such as re-zoning could rise 680 per cent, and
others are scheduled to go up more than 700 per cent.

He calledthem "injurious fees" and said his review of budgetdocumentsshows the property and planning departmentoperated in theblack last year, which means it avoided going into adeficit.

That prompted him to suggestthe city was attempting to recover costs for other departments instead.

Stacey Nickel, president ofVisionary Homes, which specializes in small in-fill condo projects, said those fee hikes will putmany of her projects in jeopardy or halt them altogether.

Colin Fast of the Winnipeg Construction Association (WCA) wasn't asopposed to the fees, as long as they came with improvements to the service the city provides.

He said the building permits department needs more staff and resources to speedthings up for WCA members, such as allowing communications via email. Thedepartment is so antiquated thatstaff don't operate by emailall business must be done in person, Fast said.

TheWCA is prepared to support the proposed increases if the revenue goes to enhancing theservice, he said.

"This is supposed to be operated on a cost-recovery basis [but] right now building permits and construction fees are a profit centre for the city," he said. "They're making millions of dollars every year."

John Kiernan,director of the property, planning and development, saidthe department hired an outside consultant to help decide howto raise the fees.

Kiernan told the committee the department "wanted to determine a faircost recovery" when deciding the new fees.

He said the committee benchmarked Winnipeg's fees against 30 othermunicipalities in Canada.They found the city had nearly the lowest fees of these kind in Canadaand the increases would still leave Winnipeg in the "bottom half" ofwhat cities charge for these services.

Kiernan says they sought "market reasonableness and value for service"in setting the new fees.He also told the committeea number of fees actuallydecreased or the methodology behind them was re-written so they appear to be "new" fees but really they are not.