The City of Langley has proposed to more than double its development cost charges (DCCs) for residential developers. The new charges would amount to $22,164 on a new house, compared to the current $9,078, and the DCC per strata unit – the most popular form of housing in the small city - would rise to $17,678 for townhomes and $11,661 for every new condo apartment.
The industrial DCCs will hit a whopping $4,053 per 100 square metres compared to $1,932 in Langley Township and $1,759 in the neighbouring municipality of Surrey.
Peter Simpson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, voiced his concern in a letter to Mayor Peter Fassbender.
“Since Langley City is a much denser, compact area than Surrey or Langley Township, it is puzzling why Langley City would require a hefty infrastructure increase,” Simpson notes. “Furthermore, we do not understand how construction costs to provide infrastructure of single-family homes have risen 244 per cent since 2004.
Final reading of the proposal will be before Langley City council this summer, but it appears to have support. Mayor Fassbender defends the increases as overdue.
For more on this topic see the March "Land Issue" of Western Investor.
