In a six to two vote, Richmond Hill Council recently set the fee charged to developers for cash-in-lieu of parkland at $10,000 per unit.
But some councillors and residents have raised concerns about the way this figure was chosen. With the staff report that was expected to inform council’s decision not yet ready, a majority on council decided to go ahead anyway and select the interim number until a comprehensive parkland study is completed.
Cash-in-lieu of parkland is meant to establish a reserve of funds that the town can use to purchase public space elsewhere when high-rise development is unable to provide parkland. Before this vote, if residential developers could not dedicate either five per cent of their land or one hectare per 300 units to parks, they were required to pay cash-in-lieu equal to the market value of the land.
The need to revisit the Town of Richmond Hill’s policy was prompted by the province’s targets for intensification and the accompanying influx of applications to build condos. According to the Building Industry and Land Association Development (BILD), in some cases, the old policy would have meant paying the total value of the land.
In a May 2011 letter to York Region’s planning commissioner, Paula Tenuta of BILD wrote that the old policy might prevent high-density projects from moving forward.
Ward 4 councillor, Lynn Foster, thought council should have waited for the staff report.
“It needed to be a very correctly written and properly vetted report because staff knew it would be challenged by the big lawyers for the builders,” she said. “The problem for me is not whether that’s the right number or not, but that there was no process.”
With higher-density projects that can’t provide for parkland coming to the area, it’s important to build a reserve of funds that will allow the town to purchase green space elsewhere, she explained.
“If there is, through the process of going to the OMB [Ontario Municipal Board], an opportunity to buy another piece of large parkland — and that might be property on the David Dunlap Observatory — we need to have cash to buy that,” she said.
Regional councillor Vito Spatafora said he didn’t think it was fair to delay the matter any further.
“There are applications that have been waiting for months and months that needed to be addressed,” he said.
Karen Cilevitz of the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders was disturbed by the move, questioning whose interests were served. She didn’t think council was equipped to make an informed decision without the expert advice of its staff.
“It’s an absolute travesty.… What happened there was undemocratic,” she said.
Cilevitz suspects that the $10,000 figure was on the low end of the spectrum.
“I hope that indeed we will still be able to realize enough funds coming in to allow us to amass a purse for the purchase of the DDO,” she said.
Mayor Dave Barrow said it was the first time the town was dealing with the issue of cash-in-lieu of parkland. In the past, development in Richmond Hill had come mostly in the form of subdivisions, so parkland was easily provided for.
“My feeling was we promised we’d have it ready to go, and unfortunately it wasn’t ready to go, so pick an interim number for a short period of time and to allow these projects to proceed,” he said.
“Our rationale is we know we’re competitive because we applied the formula to — if this development is in North York, Markham or Vaughan — this is probably what it would pay.”
According to Barrow, compared to neighbouring municipalities, the $10,000 figure was neither the lowest, nor the highest.
The fee will only be applied temporarily, until the end of December 2012, when a comprehensive parkland study is slated to be completed by staff.
The interim fee for cash-in-lieu of parkland is expected to affect a few thousand units.