SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 3
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
OCTOBER 24, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: October 3, 1996
Dept. File No.: BMcG
TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment
FROM: Director of Land Use & Development, in consultation with the
Directors of Community Planning, Legal Services, Finance and
Permits & Licenses
SUBJECT: Revisions to the Fee By-law for One-Family Dwelling Zones
RECOMMENDATION
THAT the Director of Legal Services bring forward a by-law to
revise the Zoning and Development Fee By-law No. 5585 to increase
the RS-5 zone conditional Development Application fee by $80.00,
increase the RS-3/RS-3A zone conditional Development Application
fee by $405.00, and to increase all other RS zone development
application fees by $50.00 as described in Appendix A.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of
the foregoing, noting that the proposed fee adjustments are an
interim measure, and RS-3 and R3-3A fees would be brought in to
line with current fees in other RS discretionary zones.
COUNCIL POLICY
On January 17, 1991, Council established the general policy that the
staff costs for the processing of Development Applications and Building
Applications shall be recovered by the related application fee charges.
SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
This report recommends revisions to the Fee By-law to increase fees for
new houses and larger additions in the one-family dwelling zones to
cover the staff costs of processing Development Applications. Following
a Public Hearing on October 8, 1996, Council approved the rezoning of a
portion of West Kerrisdale and a portion of Mackenzie Heights from RS-1
to RS-5. Because staff are currently operating at capacity, the
referral report recommended that Council establish four new positions to
respond to the anticipated increase in staff workload due to the
rezoning of these two areas and anticipated future rezonings (to either
RS-5 or RS-6) as we proceed with the RS Interim Zoning Program. That
report also identified an initial shortfall in cost recovery until
revenue from development application fees in other areas rezoned in
future months come on stream.
In the meantime, the increased staff capacity would be used to increase
service levels in other application processing, primarily in existing RS
zones. Staff, therefore, recommended that Council amend the Fee By-law
to recover costs associated with the increased level of service by
increasing the development application fees in RS zones for new houses
and larger additions (equal to or greater than 60 m2 in gross floor
area). This is an interim measure until a complete fee review is
undertaken.
In addition to City advertisements in local newspapers, announcement of
the date when Council will hear from members of the community on the
proposed fee increases was sent to the appropriate construction
associations and the Architectural Institute of British Columbia.
BACKGROUND
In July of 1993, Council adopted RS-5 zoning and design guidelines for a
portion of South Shaughnessy. To accommodate the extra work in
administering this more complex and discretionary zoning, two positions
were added, a Development Planner and a Plan Checking Technician. Staff
reported to Council that the added workload from the rezoning justified
the additional staff resources, although processing RS-5 applications
would only use half of the staff time. Staff noted that with further
rezoning in South Shaughnessy, the residual time would eventually be
used up.
Subsequent to the RS-5 rezoning, Council approved the use of RS-5 Design
Guidelines for conditional applications in the RS-3 zone in East
Kerrisdale (May 1994) and the RS-3A zone (October 1994)in South
Shaughnessy. Given that approximately 75% of the applications in these
zones are now being dealt with on a conditional rather than outright
basis, the residual staff resources made available with the hiring of
staff for the RS-5 rezoning are now effectively used up. In addition,
when design guidelines for RS-3 and RS-3A were adopted, the application
fees were not increased (as they were in RS-5) and these applications
are not currently being processed on a full cost-recovery basis.
In March of 1996, Council rezoned another portion of East Kerrisdale to
a newly created RS-6 District. Staff concurrently reported to Council
about a further increase in application processing workload. As a
result, Council added a full-time Plan Checking Assistant position to
Permits and Licenses. Staff suggested that no Planning positions be
added at the time because the marginal increase in workload could be
absorbed by existing staff. However, staff noted that if RS-5 or RS-6
is adopted elsewhere in the future or if the East Kerrisdale RS-6
incremental workload proved to be more extensive that originally
anticipated, staff would report back on the need for additional staff.
On October 8, 1996, Council approved the rezoning of West Kerrisdale and
Mackenzie Heights to RS-5. The referral report for West Kerrisdale and
Mackenzie Heights noted the need for additional development planning
and inspection staff. The additional workload for Landscape Technicians
has been accommodated by Council s addition of staff related to recent
changes made to the Private Property Tree By-law.
DISCUSSION
With Council s enactment of RS-5 zones for portions of West Kerrisdale
and Mackenzie Heights, the current, fully-occupied staff will be over
burdened and service levels in development application processing will
fall across all zones. In order to maintain current service levels,
additional staff are required: a Development Planner I, a Plan Checking
Technician II, a Development Information Officer, and a Building
Inspector. The rezoning of West Kerrisdale Central and Mackenzie
Heights alone will not justify the creation of four new staff positions;
however, the residual staff resource is anticipated to be used up as
more RS-1/RS-1S areas are rezoned to RS-5 or RS-6 as part of the ongoing
Interim Zoning Program. In the meantime, any additional staff time will
be used to improve zoning inquiry and development application processing
times in other zones, primarily RS-1. (This is outlined in Appendix B
and in the previous referral report.)
Initially, during the start-up period for these two new RS-5 areas, and
until additional neighbourhoods are rezoned to RS-6 or RS-5 as part of
the Interim Zoning Program, the costs of these new staff will not be
fully offset by application fees in these two areas. However, during
this period, some time of the new staff can be used to enhance service
levels in other zones, primarily RS-1. Consequently, staff recommend
raising the development application fees to achieve cost recovery and
reflect the improved service. The fee increases are proposed on an
interim basis as a full review of all permit fees will begin shortly.
This will occur at about the time staff expect the new staff will be
fully occupied by RS-5 or RS-6 applications.
Increasing the fees for single-family development applications will
achieve the following objectives:
cover the interim start-up costs of hiring and training new staff
related to the ongoing Interim Zoning Program during periods when the
number of new conditional/discretionary applications do not fully
cover staff costs; and
maintain cost recovery for service levels.
Council should be aware that a decision to not support the proposed fee
increases to cover the increased staff positions required by the enacted
West Kerrisdale and Mackenzie Heights RS-5 rezonings would mean that the
new staff positions would be paid for out of general revenues.
Conversely, if no new staff are hired, the level of zoning inquiry and
development application services will drop. Typical results of reduced
services could include reduced ability to provide pre-application
information to the public, longer waiting times for pre-application
conferences for discretionary applications (RS-3, RS-3A, RS-5), longer
application processing time, and some reduction in availability of
building inspection for field review as a project s construction
proceeds.
SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Increased development application fees will have a minimal effect on the
cost of housing in single-family areas. On average, the additional fee
represents 0.016% of an average new house cost (lot, construction,
etc.).
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The ongoing annual cost of the four new staff positions (including wages
and benefits) would be $215,200. There would also be a one time cost of
$15,000 to cover computer equipment, software and Local Area Network
hook-ups (see Appendix B). Over time, these staff costs will be offset
by development application fees, per the City s cost recovery policies.
However, only 40 development applications are expected to be processed
per year in the two new RS-5 areas, yielding approximately $41,800 from
this source of revenue and leaving a shortfall of $173,400. However,
future potential rezonings in 1997, involving areas such as Cedar
Cottage, Douglas Park, West Point Grey, Clinton Park and Dunbar, if
approved, could lead to the processing of perhaps as many as 190
conditional applications (based on 1995 permits). This would leave a
shortfall of $16,650 in start up costs. (i.e., the cost incurred while
staff not fully occupied with RS-5 and RS-6 applications from new
zones.) In the meantime, residual staff time would be used to improve
zoning inquiry and development application processing services in other
zones, primarily RS-1, RS-3 and RS-3A areas.
Staff recommend raising permit fees as follows:
RS-3/RS-3A applications are not being processed on a cost-recovery
basis and increasing the fees for conditional applications in these
zones by $405 (from $640 to $1,045), will bring these fees in line
with those paid in the RS-5 zone (noting that conditional RS-3/RS-3A
applicants require the same level of processing as those in RS-5);
and
By increasing the development application fee for new houses and
large additions (equal to or greater than 60 m2 in gross floor area)
by $80 for conditional permits in RS-5 and $50 for all other outright
and conditional permits in RS zones (RS-1, RS-1S, RS-1A, RS-1B, RS-2,
RS-4, RS-6), revenues will match the increased cost of providing
service to RS neighbourhoods.
Council should note that these proposed fee increases are in addition to
the recent fee increases related to the revised Private Property Tree
By-law (the current fees noted in Appendix A of this report are the
fees established on August 1, 1996, related to the Tree By-law
revisions; the July 25, and July 29, 1996, referral report and technical
amendment memorandum respectively indicate the pre-August 1, 1996, fee
rates).
The fee increases proposed in this report are an interim measure to
offset some of the shortfall while maintaining current levels of
service. Given the comprehensive fee review staff will be undertaking in
the near future, in conjunction with the development and building permit
review, it is anticipated that further adjustments to fees will result.
Also, Council should note that space has been found for the additional
personnel, although space needs may later surface as an issue.
CONCLUSION
This report recommends increases to development application fees for new
houses and larger additions in single-family zones to cover the costs of
the ongoing staff position increases related to the Interim Zoning
Program thereby respecting Council s cost recovery policy.
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