There’s a basic flaw in council’s decision to discount development charges for new retail.

It presumes new retail will not come to Barrie without a break on fees, which are supposed to ensure new development pays for itself rather than placing the cost of growth on existing, residential, taxpayers.

There’s nothing in Barrie’s experience with the rapid growth of retail that indicates such fears are warranted. Rather, history supports the conclusion that retail has come to Barrie because there’s money to be made here.

The city’s population boom has driven retail growth. All developers, retail, industrial and residential, want lower development charges, but concern over the size of those charges hasn’t stopped, or even stalled, development, particularly of the retail and residential type.

Industrial is another matter. There is a lot of competition for industrial jobs, and discounts for this sector can be defended strategically. Not so with retail development. In fact, discounting development charges for retail indicates an absence of strategic thinking.

Never mind that residential taxpayers will have to make up the revenue losses, projected to be $12 million in 2009 and $13 million the year after. The move to discount retail fees is a sharp departure from recent municipal thinking, and ignores provincial growth directives.

The last council, which included many of the current councillors, made attracting industrial development a major strategic goal, so much so that it became embroiled in a nasty dispute over the future of the old Molson Park lands.

The city argued, in part, that Barrie had enough retail, and the property in question would have more strategic value if it remained industrial.

That dispute ended in a defeat at a costly OMB hearing, which ruled the property could be rezoned commercial to permit the development of Park Place. The developer’s position was bolstered by the fact the property was the last remaining quadrant of a crossroads (Highway 400 and Mapleview Drive) that remained industrial; the other three, once industrial, had been rezoned commercial to clear the way for the heavy retail development of the south end.

A basic line of defense for the lower retail fees is that retail growth may shift to Innisfil if Barrie becomes too expensive. However, that line of thinking ignores provincial policies like Places to Grow, which says growth should be directed to urban centres to take advantage of existing infrastructure, including transit, and to avoid sprawl.

The lack of strategic thinking on development fees continued the week after council narrowly voted to give retail a break. Ward 8 Coun. Jerry Moore, who led the charge to give retail a break, suggested it was time to end the exemption on development charges for new high-rise condos in the downtown and Allandale areas.

Actually, it makes sense to encourage condominium development in the downtown and in the old Allandale area because it serves the strategic purpose of adding density in the downtown core (a Places to Grow directive), as well as creating a vibrant city centre.

Taxpayers should also be asking why council decided to ignore the recommendations of the consultants hired to come up with rates for development charges. C.N. Watson had recommended an $18.78-per-square-foot development charge for retail. Council reduced that by $3.

What’s the point in paying for a study if you are going to ignore its recommendations and change them after a short political discussion?

Reducing development charges can be defended if there’s a strategic reason for doing so. That isn’t the case with lower rates for retail development.