Port Moody slightly increases growth-related developer fees after 4 years of no updates

The City of Port Moody is upping their growth-related developer fees after four years of not keeping up with inflationary pressure.

On Nov. 29, council passed an interim 4.3 percent flat-rate increase to their development cost charges (DCC), effective immediately, ahead of a major update to the bylaw in 2025.

The city’s current bylaw went into effect at the start of 2020, but staff have missed the last three annual updates due shifting priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by work related to the new provincial housing legislation last year.

“We talked about doing the inflation updates annually when we first implemented the new DCC bylaw,” said Jeff Moi, Port Moody’s general manager of engineering and operations. “But through that time, it was very difficult to have the staff resources to do the work.”

Staff said the DCCs do not reflect current construction costs, and if they are not updated, infrastructure projects will either be delayed or the city will need to find other funding sources to bridge the gap left from development dollars.

The interim increase is in line with the 2023 increases to the Vancouver’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), as the Community Charter only allows municipalities to make minor updates reflecting the previous year’s changes to the CPI.

This means the city will have to wait for a major update to make up for the funding shortfall left missing 2021 and 2022.

Coun. Callan Morrison took issue with the lack of updates in the preceding years, noting that Canada’s CPI had risen 14.1 percent over the previous three years.

“This should have been something that we were looking at every year, if we’re allowed to do it with just that simple process,” Morrison said. “It’s significant, and I think that money is important to our community.”

In-stream applications are protected from any increases for a period of one-year, provided they receive approval.

Staff said the interim increase will place a minor financial burden on the development projects, until a major update to the bylaw is completed.

The major update, which staff will begin in late 2024, requires extensive consultation with developers in 2025, followed by a review from the province.

“DCC bylaws are heavily regulated, and it requires a lot of background analysis and detailed calculations,” staff said. “Unfortunately, through COVID, the CPI index was quite volatile and quite unpredictable.”

Morrison said he hopes that CPI updates to DCCs will take place regularly in the future, requesting staff bring it back to council on a yearly basis.