The town of Tecumseh is sweetening the deal for new and expanding businesses.
Tecumseh Town Council voted this week in favour of a moratorium on commercial building fees for the following year. This covers permit fees for commercial development as well as hotel construction.
The moratorium is in place despite a slight increase in permit fees reported by the town's planning and building services department in December.
Mayor Gary McNamara tells BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that the municipality is very much open to commercial development and the town wants to provide a little boost for those hesitating to set up shop.
"For the last few years, it's been a little slow in its growth," says McNamara. "Not like our industrial area in Oldcastle, which is growing quite nicely as well as the residential development, but we still wanted to give that opportunity."
McNamara says over the past decade, the town has only seen two major developments and the waiving of permit fees is designed to help commercial growth stay in pace with the Oldcastle industrial area, as well as the burgeoning residential market in Tecumseh.
The moratorium on fees took effect immediately upon council's approval this week. Up until then, permit fees for commercial buildings and places of lodging were $0.85/sq ft.
The break on fees expires on March 13, 2019 and the plan at that time is to raise the fees to $1.05/sq ft. McNamara says that's not etched in stone, and the town will keep an eye on the amount of commercial growth.
"It's a suspension for one year, the moratorium, which we will monitor very closely in the next 12 months to see how that spurs some development in that area," says McNamara.
Complete information on the waiving of commercial permit fees can be found on the town of Tecumseh's official website and official app.