A proposed infrastructure staging and development financing plan endorsed by the Region’s administration and finance committee Wednesday puts developers on the hook for almost $2.1 billion for necessary water, sewer and roads projects over the next 14 years.

This means about $250 million would come from the Region’s coffers, and another $78 million is expected in subsidies from the upper levels of government to help pay for costs at the Skyway Wastewater Treatment Plant in Burlington.

As previously directed by council, the financing plan isn’t allowed to result in additional tax increases above and beyond what’s already been forecasted, like next year’s projected 2.6 per cent tax increase for regional services, or $22 for the average homeowner.

Halton Commissioner of Corporate Services and Treasurer Jane MacCaskill said the $250 million slated for financing by the Region represents the benefit of the infrastructure to existing taxpayers.

“It’s what we would have to do even without growth,” she said.

While $2.1 billion would ultimately be recovered through development charges, the plan calls for the Region to front about $700 million of that amount through interim financing to get the needed infrastructure on board.

Those funds would come from the Region’s reserves, its infrastructure investment revolving fund and through issuing debt, explained MacCaskill, and would be paid back through future development charge collections.

On the infrastructure side, the plan includes more than 100 water and sewer projects and 138 roads projects, said Halton Commissioner of Public Works and Engineering Services Mitch Zamojc.

Some of the projects are slated for fast-tracking, including:

• Tremaine Road, from Main Street to Hwy. 401 and Derry Road to Britannia Road — advance from 2017/2018 to 2013

• Britannia Road from Tremaine Road to Ninth Line — advance from 2021/2022 to 2013

• Dundas Street, from Bronte Road to Proudfoot Trail, the CN rail crossing and Bronte Creek crossing — advance from 2016 to 2012

• Neyagawa Boulevard, from Dundas Street to Hwy. 407 — advance from 2022 to 2012

• Regional Road 25, from Hwy. 407 to Britannia Road — advance from 2013 to 2011.

The infrastructure staging plan also proposes how future water and sewer allocations should be made for development in Oakville and Milton. It includes 21,766 single-detached equivalent (SDE) units for Milton and 17,829 SDEs for Oakville that’ll be released in stages based on infrastructure timing.

The committee heard from Burlington resident Tom Muir, who lauded staff’s “milestone progress in trying to organize the staging and financing of residential development on a more self-sustaining, stand-on-your-own-two-feet basis.”

He went on to call for the exact accounting of all costs driven by growth that are shouldered by taxpayers.

Representatives who spoke on behalf of Mattamy Homes and Trinison Management Corporation, which owns lands in Milton and Oakville, also appeared before the committee and voiced their support for the plan.

The infrastructure staging and development financing plan report will go before regional council Wednesday and will also be part of 2009 budget deliberations, which start early next month.

Other steps in the process include negotiating financial agreements with local developers and presenting a final financial and implementation plan for council consideration at a future meeting.

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com .