By Robert Washburn
Here is a radical idea: Make developers pay the complete cost of getting municipal approval for their projects.
It will never happen.
But, it should be considered.
Right now, public tax dollars are spent maintaining planning departments. Certainly, there are aspects of planning that are in the general public interest – official plans, secondary plans, bylaws, policies, etc. These documents set out the settlement patterns, rules, guidelines and procedures for applications. This makes sure a house in not built next to factory. It makes sure there are plenty of parks. Also, it makes sure there is a vision for how a municipality should grow. And, it makes sense those things should be publicly funded.
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