The Municipality is seeking public input on proposed changes to the Development Cost Charges (DCC) Bylaw.
What are DCCs?
DCCs are fees that municipalities charge developers of subdivisions or new buildings. These fees help fund the infrastructure required to support the new development. The fees are placed in reserve funds to contribute to future capital projects identified within the municipality's DCC Program.
DCCs help facilitate development by providing a method to finance the capital projects needed to keep up with growth.
Proposed changes include:
- Increasing DCC rates by 17.7%, to reflect updated infrastructure costs and account for inflation
- Collection of DCCs at time of subdivision, rather than the current collection time at issuance of building permits. This is intended to provide funds to the Municipality as early as possible to alleviate current issues with cash flow and rapidly declining development fund reserves
- Inclusion of a DCC charge to support the purchase of land for future employee housing
Council is considering the impact of these changes, such as:
- Increasing the Municipal Assist Factor, whereby the Municipality will further subsidize developer’s costs to reduce the charges paid by developers
- Every 1% increase in the Municipal Assist Factor will require to Municipality to contribute approximately $441,000 in subsidies to developers over the course of the DCC program.
- Collection of DCCs at the time of subdivision for new land, rather than at the time of building permit for new construction
- This could increase the subdividing developer’s up-front costs, however, the bylaw provides an option for developers to pay only 25% at subdivision, with the remaining 75% occurring at building occupancy
- In light of potential installment payments, and low Municipal development fund reserves and cash flow issues, collecting DCCs at the time of subdivision will improve cash flow in the development fund reserve
- Should SPMRM’s DCC reserves be depleted, existing loan payments in the development fund (~$350,000 per year) will need to be serviced with Municipal funding, as DCC reserves will not be available.
Further information is provided in the links to the right of this page. If you have any questions or comments on the proposed changes, please email dcc@sunpeaksmunicipality.ca by 6th August 2026.
The Municipality is also looking to hold a public consultation session on the DCC bylaw update. Further details will be provided as they become available.