Who pays? Essex County ponders $13K home build charges on top of municipal fees
A house is under construction in the BK Cornerstone subdivision off Queen Street in Harrow on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. If the county enacts development fees, a residential build like this one would see total municipal fees of $38,176. Photo by Brian MacLeod /Windsor Star
UPDATE: The County of Essex has released a background study on development charges. It can be found at bit.ly/4joBPYG
Despite calls from some councillors to kill the process outright, Essex County is moving ahead with public consultations into new development charges that could see an extra $13,000 added to the cost of a home.
Proponents of the move argue the new fees are needed to help cover the high costs of new infrastructure to accommodate new growth. Essex County’s seven municipalities already levy local development charges on residential development, but the new county levies would come on top of those.
Essex County is facing $1-billion in upper-tier infrastructure needs so it has no choice but to impose its own development fees, Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara said at the April 2 county council meeting.
He previously said about $850 million of that is for roads, much of which will be spent over the next 10 to 15 years.
“One billion dollars — so one way or another, it’s either going to be paid through property taxes, or … we can reduce that amount through development charges,” McNamara said…