Here’s something interesting! In what looks to be a very busy week and month for city council, it’s a chance for them to sit as a tribunal to hear a complaint, in this case a complaint concerning a development charge. Council will hear the complaint, hear the response, and then hear the counter-response from both sides before rendering a decision. It’s all the fun of a civil trial live from the council chambers!!
NOTE #1: Since this is a hearing, there are no delegations.
NOTE #2: In addition to meeting in-person, this meeting will also be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.
NOTE #3: This is the second of two meetings scheduled for Wednesday February 14, and it takes place at the special time of 5 pm.
Development Charges Complaint Procedures Orientation – Before getting into the actual hearing, council needs some orientation about how it’s all going to work; City Council will
be acting in its capacity as a tribunal and exercising quasi-judicial power. Essentially, a development charge can be appealed if the person paying the charge feels that it was incorrectly determined, if a credit was available and not applied, and if there was an error in the application. Council then hears the complaint and can either dismiss it or correct it.
Public Meeting to Hear Complaint Under Section 20 of the Development Charges Act, 1997 – The complainant here is Paisley & Whitelaw Inc, owner of a development on 1098 Paisley Road. At issue is that the developer believes they overpaid on some DCs earlier in the process to the tune of $809,318, and that overpayment was supposed to be applied to the Building C part of the project.
From the letter to the City, “City staff subsequently acknowledged the Early Payment Agreement and applied the Original Rates until the Overpayment was exhausted (the first 56 one-bedroom units). However, the City’s DC calculation imposes interest against the Overpayment that they were holding.” According to the letter, the City is not allowed to collect interest on the overpayment either as it would be “an unfair windfall to the City.”
After the hearing, council will meet in closed session to reach a decision.
Guelph Politico 