Coun. Andy Stradling repeated to council on Monday his request of six weeks ago for city staff to get a DCC (Development Cost Charge) bylaw drafted and on the table following the February release of the infrastructure report.
"The zoning bylaw is next week," he said, "but the DCC bylaw seems to be nowhere on the agenda."
CAO Victor Kumar responded, "We still need to determine one piece of engineering," in particular the "pressure zones" in the water system and the effect of the Ophir reservoir on them. "That has significant implications on how we structure a DCC."
Stradling asked, "We were told [the bylaw] was only deferred until February when the infrastructure report would be released that would provide all the necessary information for us to structure and evaluate a DCC. Now I'm hearing the report doesn't go far enough to determine those DCCs?"
Kumar asserted that the last review was in 2000, but the pressure system was changed by the Ophir Reservoir since then. To determine pressure zones for the DCC calculation would require engineers and money.
Building inspector Jason Ward added, "We have an updated water model coming in August. We don't have a sewer model," as much as Ward said we really need one. "To do an actual sewer model we're talking some time and significant money."
Stradling asked directly, "[The DCC bylaw] is not going to make this council, is it?"
Kumar replied, "We need to come up with some reasoning, a substantial report is required. We are still trying to put it so we can bring the bylaw forward so it is defensible and can withstand a court challenge."
Coun. Kathy Wallace said "the municipality has to be very careful that any DCCs are justified, it must be fair. The slogan some throw around, 'make the developers pay,' is very simple."
Stradling was less concerned with the DCC itself, and more concerned that more than a year after instructing staff to draft the bylaw, it seems to have been pushed into the background.
"We have to come clean to the public with what our intentions are," he said.