The City of Surrey has rolled back residential development cost charges to 2023 rates so it can apply for Canadian Housing Infrastructure funding from the federal government, which last year announced up to $6 billion will be made available to provinces and cities over the next decade to speed up construction of infrastructure needed to support the development of new homes.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said there "couldn't be a more important time in our recent history to do this."
City council on March 10 gave third-reading approval to related bylaws. According to a corporate report that came before council that night, the largest category of residential growth over the coming decade is expected to be apartments.
If the City of Surrey doesn't secure the CHIF funding city staff will present council with an updated 2025 development cost charges bylaw to consider.
Coun. Harry Bains said rolling back residential development cost charges rates to the 2023 rates "is something that our development community needs.
"We're in the midst of a housing crisis and the development community is facing significant economic challenges caused by things like higher interest rates and the threat of tariffs from the U.S.," he said.
"The increasing cost of development is causing some developers to delay and in other cases stop their developments altogether and we definitely can't have this so I'm glad to see we as a city are taking steps like this to keep development costs down and to provide our development community with some stability while still meeting the eligibility requirements of the Canadian Housing Infrastructure Fund," Bains said.
