RICHMOND HILL BUDGET: RESPONDING TO GROWTH

NRU
Feb. 8, 2017
Leah Wong

With increasing intensification and infill development, Richmond Hill’s planning team is finding applications are becoming more complicated, requiring specialized knowledge.

At committee of the whole yesterday, planning and regulatory services commissioner Ana Bassios requested a $16.205-million gross operating budget for 2017. This reflects a 6.9 per cent increase over the 2016 budget, which is primarily due to staffing increases.

Two of her priorities this year are the implementation of a new information technology management system and the development of a comprehensive zoning by-law.

Bassios has requested seven new staff members, who will be added throughout the year. This includes four positions— development manager, senior planner, planner I and zoning clerk—which will form the comprehensive zoning by-law project team, as well as a senior urban designer, by-law and licensing enforcement officer, and a by-law policy officer.

At committee of the whole yesterday, Bassios said that the senior urban designer would focus on development applications and work with developers to ensure the town’s expectations for privately owned lands are met. This expertise will allow the town to find “good solutions and compromises” among developers, the town and the community.

“Increasingly, in the kind of infill and high-rise environment we are dealing with, the design capacity to actually locate a big structure or intersect a development into the existing [urban] fabric requires much more design expertise and capacity than we’ve ever had,” said Bassios. “This is a symptom of the shift [away from greenfield development].”

The proposed budget also adds $10,000 for consulting services. Bassios said this would allow staff to seek outside advice in a timely matter to respond to new types of development. Last year, she noted, the town had received applications for nontraditional townhouse designs and her team did not have the capacity to undertake the necessary analysis.

Bassios said the town anticipates an increase in development planning application and building permit fees. Increased revenue from building permit fees means the town does not need to depend on its building permit stabilization reserve fund. In 2016 the town collected $1-million more in fees than it had anticipated. This meant that the town did not have to draw from the reserve fund last year.

“We saw a boost in revenue because there was a spike [in applications] because of the building code changes,” said Bassios. Typically, when developers know there is a change in legislation pending, there will an increase in applications as applicants “try to get in under the wire,” she explained.

Council is expected to approve the final operating budget at its meeting February 28.