Community Accessibility Fund

Complete Program Policies and Conditions

1. Eligible program participants include registered owners, assessed owners, tenants and assignees as identified in Section 28(7) of the Planning Act.
2. All proposed development shall conform to the County and Municipal Official Plans, Zoning By-law, Council approved design guidelines, and other planning requirements.
3. CIP applications related to affordable housing projects will involve pre-consultation with the County of Northumberland Housing Office.
4. Grant amounts exclude HST.
5. The Municipality may acquire lands in the implementation of this CIP program, including purposes of supplying affordable housing, improving deficient infrastructure, underutilized land or buildings, buildings not meeting property standards or occupancy requirements, off-street parking, specialized use public buildings, establishing parkland or active transportation areas, civic spaces, or environmental restoration.
6. All improvements shall be made pursuant to a building permit and constructed in accordance with the Ontario Building Code where required.
7. Property taxes shall be in good standing at the time of application and throughout the length of any incentive or grant commitment. Where arrears exist, an application will not be approved and/or grants will not be advanced until arrears are eliminated.
8. The lands subject to the CIP project shall have no outstanding work orders issued by the Municipality against the property. Outstanding work orders or requests against the property must be complied with prior to the consideration of any application or must be rectified through the proposed improvements.
9. Applications may be received for CIP projects that fall outside the scope of this CIP Plan. Such applications will demonstrate a justification of the request for project support in the context of municipal benefits regarding fiscal, environmental, social, and economic contributions.
10. A CIP program will be activated through Council’s budget and a project-specific bylaw under Section 28 of the Planning Act. During preparation of its annual budget Municipal Council will determine the contribution to be made available to the various programs under this CIP for the following year. The financial incentive programs available under this CIP will be administered by Municipal staff within the budget established by Council. Projects will not be approved that result in over-expenditure to what has been allocated to the CIP’s program(s) by Municipal Council.
11. Eligibility is based on the criteria laid out in the individual CIP programs. If the number or quality of applications exceed available funding, the group of submitted applications will be Municipality of Brighton - Draft Community Improvement Plan – Community Development Initiatives 7 evaluated and only the applications that have been evaluated as offering the highest quality of the proposed property enhancement and/or development project, or community benefits will be awarded. In addition, the decision to fund and the amount of funding will generally be determined through the application of minimum criteria which measures each application based on the quality of the proposed property enhancement and/or development project. Such criteria as may be updated without amendment to this CIP Plan will be determined by staff, or an Evaluation Committee as may be established by Council;
12. Only lands and buildings that are a legal use, including legal non-conforming/legal non-complying uses under Section 34 of the Planning Act, will qualify under the CIP Plan. Expansions of such buildings or changes of uses to such buildings or lands will need to address conformity to the Zoning by-law. Exceptions may apply where the Municipality is acquiring the non-conforming lands or buildings, or re-development of the lands or buildings is improving conformity;
13. The Municipality is not responsible for any costs incurred by an applicant in relation to applying for any of the incentive programs.
14. The Municipality reserves the right to peer review/audit any studies and/or works approved under an incentive program.
15. If the applicant is in default of any program requirement, or any other requirement of the Municipality, the Municipality may delay, suspend, cancel, or reduce the amount of its program approval and/or the financial incentive(s).
16. The Municipality may, at its discretion, and without further amendment to the CIP, extend or discontinue any program when and as deemed appropriate. Notwithstanding this, participants in various programs prior to their discontinuation may continue to receive approved incentives/grants after the closing of the program as determined through individual agreement with the Municipality and subject to available funding approved by the Municipality.
17. No application is guaranteed approval, the Municipality has full authority over all decisions, and final decisions with respect to applications.
18. As a condition of approval, the applicant and/or owner of the property may be required to enter into agreements with the Municipality. Depending on the nature of the program application, the agreement may be registered on the title of the applicable property. The agreement may specify terms, duration, default, penalty, and termination provisions of the financial incentive.
19. Funding will only be provided after an agreement is executed, if required, and once all other conditions have been met.
20. If the funding is recurring over multiple years, then funding will only be issued if appropriate documentation is provided and accepted by the Municipality each year, as required.
21. Works commenced after applying but prior to application approval are done at the applicant’s risk.
22. In accordance with Section 28(7.3) of the Planning Act, the total amount of all financial incentives (including any tax assistance) given by the Municipality to a specific development shall not exceed the eligible cost with respect to those lands and buildings.