North Cowichan is developing a new Community Amenity Contributions (CAC) policy. This policy is meant to be an interim policy and will be in effect until the current Development Cost Charges (DCC) bylaw is updated in 2025 and comes into full effect one year later. 

Developers, land owners, builders/contractors, representatives of organizations that support affordable housing in North Cowichan, as well as the general public, are invited to share their feedback on the draft policy through a survey. The survey is open until April 13 2025

What are Community Amenity Contributions?

CACs are cash or in-kind contributions that developers agree to provide as a condition of rezoning. These contributions are negotiated between the local government and the developer through the zoning bylaw application process and would not otherwise be required by any other regulation. Anything that has a benefit to the broader community can be considered an amenity. The draft policy addresses amenities to support infrastructure needs and to help fund affordable housing projects in North Cowichan.

The CAC policy will provide guidance for developers, staff, and Council in negotiating appropriate community amenity contributions at the time of application for zoning bylaw amendments. If a site is already zoned for the intended development, the CAC policy will not normally apply.

What are Development Cost Charges?

While the cost of maintaining infrastructure that benefits our neighbourhoods is generally covered by property taxes and user fees, the expectation is that new, additional or upgraded infrastructure that is needed for that new development is funded through a “developer pays” model where one or more developers are expected to fund (or directly construct) all additional or upgraded infrastructure needed for that new development. This is done either through:

• Payment of Development Cost Charges (when residual capacity exists but new upgrades will be needed in the future) or 
• Developer-constructed infrastructure upgrades (where residual capacity does not exist) and:
  1. Receives DCC credits from the municipality and/or funding contributions from previous DCCs collected for that project;
  2. Registers “latecomer” charges on the titles of all other properties who benefitted from the upgrades, to recoup their share.

The current development cost charges (dating from 2015) that fund new infrastructure for development are approximately $8,100 per new single family lot and $5,200 per apartment unit, on average (sums differ slightly depending on location). Given inflation (particularly in construction costs) and the scale of potential new development, these DCCs are insufficient to fund the infrastructure that is now needed. It is expected that DCCs may rise to approximately $36,000 per new single family lot and $22,000 per apartment unit to cover the cost of upgrades. This increase may have an impact on the viability of some development projects.

The proposed CAC policy

The proposed interim CAC policy has two separate components: short-term infrastructure and affordable housing. This policy arose as part of measures designed to implement the Bell McKinnon Local Area Plan (BMLAP) and to bridge funding gaps for providing essential infrastructure until the new DCC bylaw is updated. While the CAC policy is being developed primarily as a result of the BMLAP implementation, it would apply across the municipality since the challenges with providing infrastructure and affordable housing are municipality-wide. 

Short-term infrastructure CAC

The policy has been drafted to ensure that:

• current-day development is paying a fair share towards these necessary upgrades relative to what developers in the near future will pay; and
• cash flow for these upgrade projects is available immediately, either for North Cowichan to construct upgrades, or to provide credits to developers who construct upgrades.

Affordable housing fund CAC

This section of the policy has been drafted to outline proposed contributions to North Cowichan’s affordable housing fund:

• $4,000 per additional single detached lot  
• $2,000 per additional ground-oriented unit (i.e., townhome)  
• $1,000 per additional apartment/condo unit.  

Revenue into the affordable housing fund can be used for a variety of purposes aimed at providing more affordable housing locally. This could include things such as land purchases for affordable housing projects, feasibility studies, leveraging grant funds, fee waivers, and partnerships with providers such as B.C. Housing.