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Citizen
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Volume 40 No. 27
Friday, July 5, 2024
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, ON N0M 1H0
Dora for Bailey’s new play By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen
A day of diversity Indonesian dance troupe Nyai Randha performs a traditional routine at The Square during Huron County's 12th Multicultural Festival on Saturday, June 29. Despite the threat of rain and wind, the day featured a delicious variety of food and beverage, cultural booths
with information and activities, and a vibrant array of entertainment. As planned, the stage show went ahead outdoors, offering a delightful mix of music and dancing from a variety of different cultural backgrounds. (Scott Stephenson photo)
Late last month, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) handed out its 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Awards after announcing the nominees earlier in the month and several artists with Blyth Festival connections brought home some hardware. The Master Plan at Crow’s Theatre, written by playwright Michael Healey, the man behind The Drawer Boy, won the Outstanding New Play Award in the General Theatre Division. The play also earned Outstanding Scenic and Projection Design Dora Award in the same category. Peter N. Bailey, who has a long history with the Blyth Festival from 2007’s World Without Shadows to last season’s The Real McCoy, won the Outstanding New Play Dora Award in the Independent Theatre Division for Tyson’s Song at the Pleiades Theatre. Steve Lucas, a set design regular at the Festival, is nominated, alongside Rebecca Morris, won the Outstanding Scenic/Projection Design Dora Award in the Independent Theatre Division for Appropriate. For a full list of winners and nominees, visit tapa.ca.
County passes unscheduled planning fee increases By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Despite some private concerns expressed by Bluewater and a feeling the fees were too high from Morris-Turnberry, Huron County Council has passed a new fees and charges structure for its planning applications. Council passed the new fees on the recommendation of Planning and Development Department Director Sandra Weber and Manager of Planning Denise Van Amersfoort at council’s June 12 meeting. The county’s nine municipalities have now been asked to revise their planning fees bylaws based on the changes approved on June 12 effective Aug. 1, 2024. In their report to council, Weber and Van Amersfoort told council that planning application fees are typically reviewed every five years. They were last reviewed in 2021 and the new schedule was set to be in place from 2022 to 2026, including a two per cent increase each year over the five years. “Although the fees were
approved by the county and local municipalities until the end of 2026, several changes occurred since that time that warranted a need for further review to determine if the costs of the county and the local municipalities are being covered,” the women said in their report to council. “These changes include legislative amendments to the Planning Act that have added work to the process, increased costs of staff time and disbursements being greater than the estimated two per cent increase to fees, complexity of applications and the implementation costs of Cloudpermit to modernize and streamline the application process.” Van Amersfoort reiterated this verbally to the councillors at the meeting, saying that the complexity of applications is definitely on the rise, especially due to the increase in Plan of Subdivision applications. She also noted the long-term planning work for which the department is responsible, which includes five-year official plan reviews that staff have to maintain in addition to their already steady
workload of day-to-day applications. The pair then noted the direction of the Planning Fees Working Group, which was formed late last year and included representation from municipal staff across the county. Its conclusion was that fees needed to increase. “The Working Group reviewed fees for comparator municipalities across the province, reviewed the current fee for each type of planning application to determine recommended changes to cover staff time and disbursements and discussed the need for additional fees for services that are not currently included in the fee schedule. The recommended changes were then sent out by email for comment to all chief administrative officers and clerks across the county. A more formal report was then prepared for the local municipal chief administrative officer and clerk to review with their council,” they said in their report. “At this time, seven of the local municipalities have indicated that
they are supportive of the proposed new planning fee schedule and would like to proceed to implement the new fees. This includes the Town of Goderich, AshfieldColborne-Wawanosh, Central Huron, Howick, North Huron, Huron East and South Huron. The Municipality of Bluewater received the report for information only with comments ranging from increasing the fees higher to have full cost recovery to not increasing the fees and reducing the Planning Department budget. MorrisTurnberry also received the report for information and while they indicated they are not opposed to fee increases, they felt that the increment of the proposed increase is too high and enough justification is not provided.” Weber and Van Amersfoort then provided two pages of comments from the Working Group. They concluded that the review of comparator municipalities indicated that the current fees are low; the two per cent annual increase has not kept up with the consumer price index for staff time and
disbursements, meaning that true costs are not being recovered and legislative amendments to the Planning Act have resulted in additional work for staff. The group also concluded that, because of the substantial increase in property value, members felt that the proposed fee increases would not deter applicants from proceeding with developments. They then detailed some of the proposed changes for council in their report, beginning with an annual increase on Jan. 1 of each year that is based on the consumer price index from Statistics Canada, rounded to the nearest $10 increment. The proposed increases are disseminated in detail in their report. They include: • Plans of subdivision or condominium from $9,364 to $10,000 for one to 10 blocks, lots or units and an increase from $176 to $200 for each additional block, lot or unit over 10. Draft plan approval extensions will increase from $2,081 to $2,500 for the first Continued on page 26