The City of Brandon is proposing a development charge to pay for new roads and pipes as the city expands.
Earlier this month, the city shared a study with the public calculating the cost of the proposed development charges.
Jacqueline East, general manager of Brandon's development services division, said if city council chooses to adopt the fees, the charge for developers would be $7,656 for a single family home and $4,953 per apartment. The charge for industrial and commercial builds would be calculated on a $2.37 per square-foot basis.
According to the city's growth plan, Brandon anticipates its population to grow by 23,000 residents and more than 10,000 employees over the next 20 to 30 years.
According to the latest Census, Brandon's population increased 6.1 per cent between 2011 and 2016. The city's population is now 48,859.
"We're in a position in Brandon where we have some growth plans. We've been having growth, but we don't have plans of how to build that infrastructure that we need," East said. "We really have to build the infrastructure to accommodate the new development."
East said Brandon is at a point where some developers are getting held up because of a lack of infrastructure to accommodate new construction.
"We're almost at the point where we have to say no to development right now because we don't have the infrastructure."
The most common way to pay for it is through development charges, East said
Currently, infrastructure needs for new neighbourhoods in Brandon are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
The development charge proposal is still in the consultation phase and hasn't been debated by Brandon City Council.
Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest said the city wants to let the public weigh-in on the issue before it comes to council for debate.
"We're having a true consultation on this," said Chrest. "There's certainly no pre-disposition on the part of myself or our councillors. We'll allow the process to go through and in the end, council will collate all the information that comes forward both from the consultant and our administration, from developers and the general public."
"Really the objective of this is that it would be a predictable fee that replaces the one-off negotiations that we have to do now on just about a weekly basis."
A public meeting is expected in Brandon in late May.
Administration hopes to bring a report to Brandon City Council for first reading sometime that same month.
The City of Winnipeg is currently locked in a legal battle with the development industry over growth fees.
The charges in Winnipeg will see an extra $9,000 tacked on to the cost of an 1,800 square-foot home in newer neigbourhoods to pay for related infrastructure.
The fees will be collected in Winnipeg as of May 1, but there will be a six-month grace period for those who get their building permits in before the deadline.
