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Residents on Innisfil Beach Road given option to hook up to municipal services

Residents get the benefit of municipal water and sanitary sewer servicing
2020-11-23 Innisfil Beach Road
Innisfil Beach Road and Highway 400. Raymond Bowe/BarrieToday

In 2015, the Town of Innisfil introduced a policy for voluntary water and sanitary servicing: as roads are reconstructed and servicing extended, residents along the route are given the option to hook up to the services and pay the lateral and connection fees over a 10-year period, with interest.

In 2017, the policy was amended to allow residents in all development areas to choose to have the cost of the service laterals and connection fees added to their property taxes over a 10-year period, regardless of when they plan to connect.

As a result, residents on Spring Street in Alcona, and in Gilford, Lefroy, Innisfil Beach Road, Yonge Street and Friday Harbour areas have made arrangements to have the cost of connection added to their property taxes.

On Wednesday night, Innisfil Council passed a bylaw to recover the installation costs of water and sanitary sewer laterals and connections from 14 property owners on Innisfil Beach Road, in the largely rural area west of 20 Sideroad.

The road is currently being widened to four lanes.

The total cost of servicing the 14 homes, including estimated interest at the current market rate over the 10-year period, was given as $377,438.90 in a staff report. Most of the homeowners will be billed a total of $28,938 over that time period, with a portion of that amount added to their property tax yearly.

Interest was calculated at 2.45 percent – “a lower rate than they could borrow through their own financial institution while providing the Town of Innisfil (all taxpayers) with a modest return greater than current investment rates,” noted the report to Council.

The residents were given four options – which included paying in full and opting to not hook up to municipal services. Almost all chose the option of paying for hook-up over the 10 years.