Developer gives thumbs-up to brownfield tax incentives

08/09/2005

‘This council is saying it wants to move forward’: Charest

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

City council wants to get more input from private sector brownfield redevelopers before moving ahead with a tax incentives proposal to lure them into cleaning up some of Brantford’s worst sites.

Council agreed in a planning meeting Monday to defer final approval of its Brownfield’s Property Tax Reduction Program for six weeks to give staff enough time to call in interested developers to get their views on the initiative.

The program, an amendment to the city’s overall brownfields community improvement and strategic action plans, would give credits to developer against future property taxes on redeveloped sites and wipe out some or all of the province’s education tax on property.

The credits would defray environmental remediation and other approved costs.

The plan has been endorsed by the citizen-led community brownfields advisory committee and a staff technical committee, and has met with early favourable response from the Ontario government.

But on Monday, several councillors we concerned that they very developers who might benefit from the program had not been adequately consulted.

“I believe we would benefit from hearing their expertise,” said Coun. Larry Kings.

“At the end of the day, we want to form a partnership with industry,” said Coun. John Sless, “but how do we get there when we don’t talk to the other half?”

Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith pointed out that when the overall plan was being adopted two years ago, before the present council took office, it was taken to a host of local private groups including the home builders, the real estate association, the Rotary Club and the Kiwanis Club. But several councillors wanted more consultation.

Steve Charest, president of King & Benton Redevelopment Corp., which has successfully redeveloped the former Harding Carpets property into the Holmedale Business Centre and is revamping the Work Wear property at Wellington and Clarence streets into a YM-YWCA Family Program Centre, told council he likes the incentive plan in general.

Its focus on property tax addresses one of the major cost considerations in brownfield redevelopment, he said.

But Charest suggested some changes that might improve the plan and more could come from extra consultation.

“We’re almost there,” he said. “What I like is that this council is saying it wants to move forward. This is an opportunity for the private sector to get in the swim lane.”