to properties with septic systems less than 10 years old along 8th Concession Road at the time the 8th Concession trunk sanitary sewer was constructed under Infrastructure Stimulus Funding. If Council agrees with this recommendation, By-law 9-2019 would need to be amended accordingly.

Revisions to the Local Improvement Policy Payments

The Baseline Road local improvement was reviewed under the old and new policies to determine the impact of the 2019 Policy changes on this project. Under the policy in place prior to the 2019 Policy, a rate of $140 per metre frontage was used to assess the abutting properties, plus the cost of private drain connections. This rate was established in 2003 under CR292/2003 and is no longer sufficient to cover the cost of mainline sewer construction due to increases in the cost of materials and labour. Under the 2019 Policy, in lieu of a rate, abutting property owners were to be assessed the actual cost of the work, including full restoration and private drain connections, less the cost to the City for intersections and road drainage.

Administration is recommending a new $210 flat rate be added to the City’s Fees and Charges By-law for sanitary sewer construction, which more accurately reflects current mainline sewer construction costs for a 250mm sanitary mainline sewer, including restoration by topsoil and grass only (excludes hard surface removal and replacement). Under the proposed changes to the 2019 Policy, abutting residents will be charged this flat rate plus the cost of boulevard restoration (topsoil and sod only up to 2m from the pavement edge) and the full cost of private drain connections.

The City will review the new rates included in the City’s Fees and Charges By-law annually and amend accordingly based on inflation and changes in construction pricing. This will ensure a reasonable change in rate annually rather than a drastic increase in costing going forward.

To further address the residents’ objections, this report recommends cancelling the previously circulated local improvement approved by CR4/2020 under the 2019 Policy. The new recommendation is to proceed under the revised policy set out in this report. For property owners, this will lower the overall per linear metre frontage assessment cost of the local improvement from $450.81 under the 2019 Policy to $244.21 (includes boulevard restoration). The City would absorb the additional costs (a net cost increase from $113,508 under the 2019 Policy to $605,508 under this proposed policy) associated with this change. This will impact the number of projects that can be completed in a given year based on available funding.

Property owners have expressed concern with the cost of the work required on private property to connect to the proposed sewer once it is available. This work will involve, in some cases, internal plumbing changes, new private drain connections on private property and decommissioning of the septic system.