Development Charges system to be modified

Meadows, Kingsmen, Westwood Hills subdivisions all seem to be busy in 2026

Two areas of Woodstock are witnessing several residential blocks under construction -- the subdivision south of Karn Road, so the City's southwest corner, and certainly also the northeast area north of Pittock Lake where both the River & Sky neighbourhood (Former locale of Woodstock Meadows golf course) and also Phase 6 of Havelock Corners by the Kingsmen Group (Thames Development) is being serviced with roads, utilities and water lines.

I often avoid a tug-of-war between opinion and simply stating facts, but after a couple years of servicing with bulldozers and road layouts, anyone driving on County Road 17 will witness quite an obvious burst of construction of homes -- a significant percentage of townhouses, but additional detached houses as well.

When you combine this north-of-Pittock development with Karn Road and other approved projects it creates some peace-of-mind when you mirror the numbers with both the City's response (or pledge to the province) to residential growth up to 2031 and the community's council-approved report to request provincial dollars from our willingness to reduce 'development charges' (DC) by 50% over the next 3 calendars to entice -- more homes to be built and at an expectant lower price with corresponding DC reductions. The City and County currently combine to receive about $35,000 (Total) per new single-family home for the so-called DC's as growth should assist in paying for growth.

Karn Road (Accessed best from Gillespie street off Karn or via the continuation of Anderson) hammers and plywood feature the Westwood Hills group as local builders Hunt Homes (Steve Hunt), Deroo Brothers Ventures (Henry and sons Julian and Lucas), Deroo Fine Homes (Paul Deroo), Caisteal Homes (Scott Deroo), Karl Reyneveld, Oxford Builders (George Geerlinks); and also the Cachet Homes builders using the name Heartwood for its subdivision.

Let's not forget, Neighbourhoods of Devonshire (East end, but west of Woodall Way) includes Fusion Homes and Claysam Homes.

Certainly, receiving DC money from builders is extremely important to assist in creating parks and accompanying playgrounds, recreation facilities, expanding library systems, extending transit lines, and so much more.

In turn, the Woodstock new pledge to the province (June 18 council debate and approved motion) for our DC coffers to be reduced by 50% in obtaining these DC dollars will hopefully be converted in the next 3 years for our City to receive significant provincial 'grant' money to build a 4th ice surface locally. Keep in mind, DC charges are for 'new' items on a community's shopping list so replacing the Civic Centre Arena with a new 3rd arena would NOT qualify for this program.

Woodstock's recreation department conducted a third-party (Monteith Brown were consultants) needs assessment study where user groups' registration numbers were strictly analyzed and forecasted to prove Woodstock has the demand for a 4th ice surface, and would be in significant supply-and-demand trouble if the Civic Centre rink would fail before another ice pad was built. I must add that my 25-year (+ actually) tenure on the recreation advisory committee includes a comprehensive tour of the fairgrounds-based Civic Centre and its overall capabilities and failings (Size of dressing rooms, number of dressing rooms, AODA compliance, public bathrooms, etc).

There are semantics when trends are dissected -- for example including additional residential units in the number of annual residential totals as ARUs didn't exist 10 years ago in stats. Also, a residential unit could be a 1-bedroom apartment in a 120-unit multi-storey building or it could be a 5-bedroom 2-storey in a high-end subdivision. An average is often created as a long-tern trend. Leading up to the end of 2025, the 10-year average for new building permits in Woodstock is 391, while the 5-year average is 345. The year-by-year numbers indicate how poor the 2024 total was at just 143 units. Here are the past 6 years to consider: 2025, 422; 2024, 143; 2023, 370; 2022, 322; 2021, 469; and 2020, 522. That astronomical 2022 number included 302 single-family homes, while the meagre 2024 number featured just 14 single-family permits.

COUNCIL AGENDA (June 18)

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All these statistics appear on the city website, but an experienced City Council member with also 20 years experience as a Realtor can decipher the contents.

Today, I talked to City CAO David Creery for more particulars such as the City's 3-year (based on province's fiscal year) average or expected number of permits will be 450 per year, which translates into a forecasted 42% single-family dwellings, 27% row townhomes, and 31% apartments.

It's interesting times when it's confirmed that . . .

An often-used expression and commonly cited saying: “municipalities are creatures of the provinces” comes from a 1993 Supreme Court of Canada ruling: Accordingly, they can only exercise those powers which are explicitly conferred upon them by a provincial statute.