“Over 44 cost sharing schedules and 10 figures were created to allocate over $140M in shared infrastructure and 100 hectares of community land among 71 benefiting landowners in the vibrant MP4 Trafalgar community, covering a total of 640 hectares! Remarkably, all schedules, including detailed measurements and allocations, were completed in just 10 days. What a game changer!”
Candice Ward, MCIP, RPP – DSEL Cost Sharing Specialist
Executive Summary
The Milton Phase 4 Trafalgar Lands (MP4 Trafalgar) case study highlights an innovative approach to cost sharing among landowners within a comprehensive secondary plan area of approximately 640 hectares located in Milton, Ontario. With the project involving a significant investment of over $140 million in shared infrastructure and more than 100 hectares of community land, the collaboration among 71 benefitting landowners was essential to ensure equitable distribution of costs and benefits.
The case outlines the complexity of cost sharing tasks due to the diversity of land uses, including residential developments, employment lands, parks, and essential infrastructure such as roads and stormwater management systems. Recognizing the need for transparency and trust, the MP4 Trafalgar Landowners Group, formed by the participating owners, worked with DSEL, the Cost Sharing Engineer, to establish clear cost sharing principles and schedules.
The initiative resulted in the rapid production of over 44 detailed cost sharing schedules within just 10 days, a remarkable achievement that enabled landowners to understand the financial implications of their obligations. Key statistics include approximately 500 hectares of net developable area, 14 shared stormwater management ponds, and extensive data management, which ensured all stakeholders could navigate the complexities arising from varied ownership and development phases.
This case study emphasizes the importance of collaboration, timely decision-making, and precise data management when applying cost sharing principles and preparing schedules and figures. The MP4 Trafalgar cost sharing project demonstrates how a coordinated approach can empower landowners. It ensures that investments in land and construction infrastructure are allocated fairly, while also providing landowners with timely schedules and figures, helping them budget effectively and streamline decision-making.
Background and Context
The Milton Phase 4 Trafalgar Lands (MP4 Trafalgar) is a comprehensive secondary plan area of approximately 640 hectares located in Milton, Ontario, west of Toronto. The plan accommodates:
- A mix of low-, medium-, and high-density residential development
- Employment lands
- Parks, schools, roads, and transit-supportive infrastructure
- Extensive natural heritage and stormwater management systems
Cost Sharing is required in new multi-owner Secondary Plans to equitably share land and infrastructure elements that benefit the wider community.
Typical community land uses include parks, schools, stormwater management (SWM) ponds, oversized and community roads, walkways, community housing, etc.
Typical community infrastructure includes the cost of oversized storm sewers, sanitary sewers and watermains, oversized and community roads, boundary intersections, servicing and grading of community lands and SWM ponds, etc.
Costs are allocated to individual Owners based on a calculation of the benefit received for each cost shared element, applying principles established by the Owners for each service category, thereby ensuring transparency and building trust among stakeholders.
MP4 Trafalgar is considered a large and complex cost sharing assignment by industry standards based on the size of the community, the range of elements subject to cost sharing, the sharing of elements outside the secondary plan with parties inside MP4, and the need for development phasing.
The MP4 Trafalgar Landowners Group Inc. (Landowner Group) was established by the Participating Owners to work collectively to advance the secondary plan and establish cost sharing principles. DSEL was selected as the Cost Sharing Engineer to provide the following services:
- Prepare a list of preliminary cost sharing principles for review and comment by the Owners.
- Participate in discussions and guide the Cost Sharing Agreement.
- Prepare cost sharing figures and schedules
- Provide cost sharing certificates for registration of plans.
- Administer and update the cost sharing schedules.
Community Cost Sharing Statistics
- 71 distinct land parcels (owners) with 10 Participating Landowners Currently
- Approximately 640 hectares in the Secondary Plan
- Approximately 500 hectares of net developable area (NDA)
- 14 shared stormwater management ponds
- Over 100 hectares of shared community land
- Shared infrastructure valued at over $140 million (2026 CAD)
- 44 separate cost sharing schedules
- More than 74 pages of Excel spreadsheets
Participating Owners
Participating owners include Mattamy Homes, The Remington Group, Trinison Management Corp., and York Trafalgar Homes, as well as numerous additional property owners in the future phased lands.
Landowner Group Cost Sharing Timeline
The MP4 Trafalgar Landowners Group required cost sharing tables to be produced within a week. It was critical for the Owners to see the actual financial impact of the cost sharing principles when applied to the community. They intended to identify any significant imbalance in owner obligations that might require modification of the draft plans to remedy it or refinement of the cost sharing principles. The Landowners Group also required the Cost Sharing Principles to guide the preparation of the Cost Sharing Agreement in short order.
This expedited municipal coordination and subdivision planning, empowering landowners to make more informed and timely financial decisions.
Cost Sharing Challenges and Obstacles
Preparing cost sharing schedules and the associated figures for a community of this size and complexity on a very short timeline presented unprecedented challenges in four main areas.
- Ownership Size and Complexity
- The project involves a large number of benefiting landowners, many of whom own multiple parcels that require tracking both by individual parcels and by aggregated owner tracking.
- The development is phased. Therefore, the schedules must accommodate subgroups running on different timelines.
- The benefiting lands are located both within and outside the secondary plan, requiring careful review of the benefitting lands of the shared infrastructure.
- There is a requirement to track non-participating owners for potential future recoveries.
- Data Volume
- Tens of thousands of data points cover multiple aspects, including land areas, linear infrastructure, coefficients, units, population, and more.
- The ability to quickly and precisely extract technical information from engineering drawings is critically important to the outcome and the timeline.
- The ability to quickly and precisely prepare cost sharing figures and Excel sheets, insert the data and check the schedules is critically important to the outcome and the timeline
- Communication and Transparency
- Cost sharing outputs must be easily understood by landowners, engineers, planners, and municipal reviewers.
- cost sharing schedules must clearly set out the basis for each owner’s obligations and entitlements, ensuring that all parties are aware of their financial rights and responsibilities.
- Timing Constraints
- The landowners’ group required cost sharing schedules promptly to support planning decisions on community land use, subdivision design, and infrastructure financing.
Limitations of Traditional Industry Approaches
By conventional industry standards, an assignments of this size and complexity typically require 4 to 9 months to complete. This timeline is due to several factors, including:
- Availability of resources – cost sharing is a boutique industry with few qualified practitioners who are not always available in a timely fashion.
- Reliance on manual measurement of areas and lengths from AutoCAD drawings by qualified professionals.
- Reliance on manual data entry into Excel spreadsheets.
- Iterative updates between consultants and landowners.
- Manual preparation and checking of cost sharing drawings and schedules.
A professional engineer is typically required to prepare quantity takeoffs based on the design. These processes are resource-intensive and costly, and typically require a long lead time.
Delays in the production of cost sharing schedules can slow down or stop community advancement, as Owners may pause Group activities pending the resolution of critical community funding and cost sharing decisions.
DSEL’s Approach: Easy Share
DSEL was engaged as the Group Engineer, including preparing the full set of cost sharing schedules and figures using our proprietary Easy Share methodology.
Easy Share eliminates the need for myriad manual measurements by trained engineers and manual spreadsheet entries. Easy Share accelerates the process by extracting data directly from the engineering drawings. It organizes data within a consistent, predefined cost sharing framework, providing clarity, efficiency, and reproducible results. Additionally, Easy Share links allocations directly back to the source drawings, providing traceability and verification for all measurements.
Scope of Work
DSEL’s work involved several essential tasks, including:
- Measuring and verifying land areas directly from AutoCAD subdivision drawings and categorizing land uses across all parcels.
- Identifying non-development areas (NDAs), parks, schools, roads, and stormwater facilities. The team also focused on determining costs for oversized servicing and community infrastructure, preparing schedules for development charge credits, and establishing timelines for land-for-land exchanges. Additionally, DSEL generated owner-specific schedules to outline each owner’s obligations and entitlements.
Allocation Methodology
Easy Share employed a structured allocation methodology tailored to the type of shared asset being funded.
The Net Developable Area (NDA) served as the basis for allocating community-wide land and infrastructure costs because it reflects each owner’s proportional benefit from community-wide assets. This included items such as administrative costs, schools, oversized roads, oversized watermains and other community facilities.
Shared infrastructure, such as storm and sanitary sewers, was shared using a more dynamic approach, where each individual pipe was analyzed separately based on each owner’s share of the flow in that particular pipe.
Many cost sharing categories are unique. SWM ponds were shared among benefiting owners in the drainage area for each pond, based on their respective contributing areas and runoff coefficients. Parks were shared based on each owner’s statutory park contribution.
Data Validation Process
DSEL ensured data accuracy through a multi-step validation process, designed for projects with extensive datasets and significant financial implications. Land areas and infrastructure dimensions were measured directly from AutoCAD subdivision drawings, minimizing the risk of manual transcription errors.
These measurements were then organized within a predefined cost sharing structure, ensuring that land classifications, ownership parcels, and infrastructure categories were treated consistently throughout the study area. Internal verification checks were conducted to confirm the completeness of measurements, the correct assignment of land use categories, and the alignment between schedule calculations and the source drawings.
Since the final schedules were linked back to the underlying figures, reviewers could trace allocations to their measurement source, thereby validating how each obligation was determined. This process enhanced confidence in both the technical inputs and the resulting cost sharing schedules.
Stakeholder Communication Protocol
Communication and transparency were integral to the project’s deliverables and governance model. DSEL prepared owner-specific schedules that clearly identified each owner’s net developable area, land contributions to community uses, proportional share of infrastructure costs, and any credits, entitlements, or future recovery positions.
These schedules were crafted to be comprehensible to landowners, engineers, planners, and municipal reviewers, allowing different stakeholders to examine the same information from a common reference point.
At the same time, the direct connection between schedules and source drawings ensured that inquiries could be addressed with verifiable information rather than assumptions. This protocol supported efficient review, reduced ambiguity, and improved confidence in the fairness of the cost sharing process.
Results and Outcomes
This comprehensive effort produced more than 44 cost sharing schedules for 71 landowners in 10 days, delivering significant benefits in speed, transparency, and traceability. The rapid 10-day turnaround fostered trust and provided clear, verifiable links between financial obligations and engineering drawings.
The schedules are designed to be easily reviewed by landowners, consultants, and municipalities, allowing each owner to clearly see their net developable area, the land contributed to shared community uses, their proportional share of infrastructure costs, and any credits or financial entitlements they may hold.
Business Impact
Completing all cost sharing schedules and figures in just 10 days enabled the landowners’ group to make earlier and more confident financial and planning decisions, accelerate subdivision and servicing coordination, and minimize the risk of disputes.
Conclusion
DSEL’s proprietary Easy Share delivered significant speed, clarity, and confidence, allowing landowners to make faster decisions, communicate more easily, and rely on transparent data instead of months of manual effort during a critical planning stage.
As development of the Trafalgar Lands continues, the cost sharing framework now serves as a durable foundation for Milton’s next phase of growth.