HomeMy WebLinkAbout1978-03-03May 3, 1978
Town of Newcastle,
40 Temperance Street,
Bowmanville, Ontario
Attention: Mr. Albert Guiler,
Town Manager
Dear Mr. Guiler:
Re: Financial Impact Analysis
Courtice Area
Group
40 University Ave.
6th floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 1T1
(416) 862-0450
The purpose of this letter is to clarify the nature of our work and our under-
standing of the Town's commitments respecting the carrying out of a financial
impact analysis on existing Courtice area residents, as part of the efforts
of the Courtice Area Task Force in the Spring of 1977.
BACKGROUND
The Courtice Area Task Force was created in March, 1977 to deal with possible
impacts of the Courtice Heights subdivisions. The Task Force consisted of
two members of the Courtice Area Rate Payers Association, and the four Town
Councillors who sat on the Planning Administration Committee. The IBI Group
sat on the Task Force as Town's Planning Consultants.
We were requested to prepare a proposal to carry out a financial impact analysis
at the Task Force meeting of April 7, 1977. We responded with a proposal
in our letter of April 25, 1977, which was dealt with by the Task Force at
its regular meeting held on the same date.
In our letter we suggested that there were two separate problem areas which
should be addressed.
The first dealt with the degree to which, if any, municipal taxes might go
up as a result of the development in Courtice. The second problem area involved
the financial impact, if any, from the actual construction of sewer and water
facilities in the Courtice area. We proposed to deal with the two problem
areas separately as follows:
General Financial Impact
We suggested that the municipal financial impact problem should be dealt with
by carrying out a detailed review of Chapter 5 of the Murray V. Jones Study
in order to establish whether or not this analysis was still relevant. We
proposed a separate budget allotment for this work and indicated that we were
prepared to commence this particular phase of the work immediately upon Council
authorization.
181 is a group of companies practicing professional consulting and is affiliated with
Beinhaker/Irwin Associates Architects, Engineers and Planners
Town of Newcastle,
May 3, 1978
Page . . . 2
Regional Servicing Impact
We proposed a 7 -step program to identify the possible financial impact of
the construction of regional services and as well proposed to draw up a program
aimed at resolving any problems which were identified.
We suggested that this work be carried out in two phases, each with a separate
budget. The first phase would involve the identification of the water table
problem using a sub group of engineering consultants who were technically
competent to carry out this type of work. The second phase would have involved
using the results of the engineer's analysis to identify the actual financial
impact and to prepare the program to deal with these problems. This latter
phase would have been carried out by the IBI Group.
Both phases were to be carried out in close consultation with the Region of
Durham who were responsible for the construction of the trunk services in
question and were carrying out ground water impact analysis of the works for
which they were responsible.
COUNCIL'S ACTION
Our proposed approach was approved by the Task Force on April 25, 1977 and
subsequently by Council on May 2, 1977. It is important to note however,
that the only part of the budget approved was that amount allocated for the
review of the Murray V. Jones analysis. This is outlined in Resolution TF -
14 -77 which reads as follows:
"That the proposed budget for the financial impact study be approved
subject to revisions in accordance with services provided by the Region
and/or other parties with the exception of the analysis of the Murray
V. Jones report."
The "revisions" referred to in this resolution relate to the additional con-
sultation which was required with the Region of Durham to establish whether
part of the cost could be borne by the Region and. whether the work could be
co-ordinated with other work of a similar nature being carried out by the
Region itself. Moreover it is recognized that no work respecting this phase
should really be initiated until the physical alignments of the extension
of the services was determined by the Region.
PROGRESS
We commenced our analysis of the Murray V. Jones report in early May, 1977
and submitted our findings verbally at the Task Force meeting of July 25,
1977 and in writing on September 1, 1977. As a result of our review of the
Murray V. Jones report, we concluded that additional financial impact analysis
..3
Town of Newcastle,
May 3, 1978
Page . . . 3
would be required. We did not carry out any additional work for a further
study had been commissioned by Courtice Heights Developments relating to the
municipal financial impact of the two subdivisions in question. This latter
study was completed in September, 1977 and was revised somewhat in November,
1977.
Work relating to the engineering aspects of the regional servicing impact
problem commenced in July with the commissioning of study entitled "Impact
on the Ground Water Regime" to be carried out by Ian D. Wilson and Associates.
This work was completed in September when the final report was submitted.
Additional copies of this report were procured and made available to Members
of the Task Force in November, 1977.
The financial analysis of any impact related to the interference with private
wells was never carried out because the Region, as a result of a concerted
effort on behalf of Members of the Rate Payer Association, modified its policy
concerning ground water interference.
Yours truly,
IBI GROUP
Philip J. Levine
Associate
PJL/cmb
cc: Mr. Robert Dykstra
Chairman
Courtice Area Task Force