Development Charges Policy
The Development Charges Policy (Policy) is a financial tool used to help fund infrastructure and services required to support growth, like wastewater treatment plant upgrades, major roads, parks and recreational facilities. It supports growth by managing and investing development charges to support growth and fund infrastructure to current and future residents.
Growth Costs
The Policy helps fund Growth Costs without passing these costs onto existing residents. Growth Costs can include:
- New, expanded or upgraded infrastructure and services
- Paying down debt for past growth works
- Related administrative expenses needed to support growth, such as technical studies or plans
The Policy helps fund Growth Costs in both Greenfield and Established Areas of the city. It provides funding sources for:
- Local (or direct) Growth Costs solely benefitting and internal to a new neighbourhood or development.
- Offsite (or indirect) Growth Costs providing a broader benefit to the city’s growth, extending beyond the boundaries of a single neighbourhood or development, such as upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant.
The Policy assigns responsibility to developers to pay for Growth Costs that their subdivision, new neighbourhood or development will benefit from, such as local roads or water & sewer mains connecting homes and businesses to each system.
These costs may be considered Local Growth Costs and are provided under servicing and development agreements between developers and the city.
Development charges are a fee charged by the City when new subdivision and development occurs in undeveloped Greenfield Areas. They are intended to recover growth-related costs that extend beyond the boundaries, or are offsite, of a single new neighbourhood or development site and provide a benefit to multiple Greenfield Areas of the city. These costs may also be referred to as Offsite Greenfield Growth Costs.
Per The Planning and Development Act, 2007 and the Development Charges Policy, the City uses development charges to fund eligible expenses for the following types of infrastructure and services, in addition to related administration costs (Offsite Greenfield Growth Costs):
- Water (example: new water treatment plant)
- Wastewater (example: new sanitary trunk main required for overall city growth)
- Parks & Recreation (example: new zone level park)
- Transportation (example: interchange required after growth occurs)
Development charges cannot be used to pay for operating costs or the renewal of existing infrastructure - this is paid for through taxes and utility rates.
Paying Development Charges in Greenfield Areas
The City applies two types of development charges:
- Servicing Agreement Fees (SAFs) - applied when undeveloped land in Greenfield Areas is subdivided
- Development levies - applied when land in Greenfield Areas is developed and requires more servicing capacity for the land than previously provided, but does not involve subdivision of land
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Per Hectare Rates |
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|
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Residential |
Industrial-zoned |
|
Total |
$373,000 |
$124,000 |
Development Charges Annual Report
Each year, the City releases a Development Charges Annual Report in alignment with the Development Charges Policy that includes information on infrastructure and projects funded through greenfield development charges.
The 2024 Development Charges Annual Report can be found in the Related Documents section on this page.
The Development Charges policy was reviewed and updated after consultations with stakeholders between 2022 and 2024.
Area Specific Development Charges - Northwest Regional Wastewater Lift Station
Council has approved front-ending the construction of Northwest Regional Wastewater Lift Station. Municipal front-ending is a cost-sharing approach where a municipality initially funds infrastructure that developers would typically pay for directly then developers repay a portion of the cost over time.
The City will recover a portion of this lift station’s cost through Area-Specific Development Charge Rates applied to developers on new development within designated Benefitting Areas.
Per Hectare Area-Specific Development Charge Rates
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Per Hectare Area-Specific Development Charge Rates |
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Westbrook and Growth Area Adjacent to Pinkie Road |
Rosewood Park |
Coopertown and Growth Area North of Maple Ridge |
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$62,447 |
$100,395 |
$77,072 |
Contact
If you have questions related to the Development Charges Model Review, please contact developmentcharges@regina.ca
