A bylaw that has been absent from the Town of Parry Sound’s books for 2 decades was passed by council.
Nearly a month after the Town’s CAO Clayton Harris presented the three options for Development Charges (DC), council has moved on option #3.
The third option, approved on June 6, is one that implements the collection of DCs and charges for water and sewer services.
Harris says with approving DCs, Parry Sound took a “critical next step” in ensuring the town has the wastewater and water capacity to keep on growing.
“I believe we were able to strike the balance, which was the word that was heard most often. The industry’s primary concern was the rates were too high and not the rates that we would charge, but rather the rates that we could collect under the legislation and that was the starting point,” he says.
Harris says the new rate for a single detached home is approximately $20,000.
He says the town made significant strides to achieve the development industry’s objective of lowering the rates, adding Parry Sound’s rates now compare favorably with those in Huntsville, Bracebridge and Gravenhurst.
“So, I think we’ve achieved much of the goal that we set out for. I did want to thank the senior leadership team who is directly involved, our consultants, the development industry and anybody else that was involved because this has been a long time coming,” Harris says.
