Small change, big hit
A law change has punched a $295 million hole in Auckland Council’s future budget.
A report to the council’s governing body shows key changes to the Local Government Act will drastically affect the council’s ability to fund community projects. Small wording changes in the act tighten what councils can collect levies from building developers for.
‘‘Community infrastructure’’ is now limited to ‘ ‘ toilets, playgrounds and community halls’’.
Missing from the list are facilities such as libraries and swimming pools.
The council’s governing body is considering the impact on its 10-year Draft Long Term Plan.
North Shore councillor Chris Darby is very upset about excluding libraries.
‘‘Not allowing councils to take development contributions eats into the heart of communities. Libraries we know are one of the most cherished council services, they’re places of learning.’’
Restricting what assets receive funding from levies will see average development contributions per detached house drop from $21,000 to $18,400, the council estimates.
Local Government Minister Paula Bennett says the changes were made to ensure developers are only charged contributions for infrastructure needed to service their particular development and is one of several measures to make housing more affordable.
It’s expected that councils will re-evaluate projects in light of what the community was pre- pared to pay and could sustain financially, Bennett says.
But Upper Harbour Local Board’s Lisa Whyte believes it’s a change for the worse.
‘‘That’s not going to make a house more affordable, the difference [to the developer] is less than $3000, the difference is not going to be someone affording a house or not, whereas making a city liveable, that $ 295m has quite a big difference,’’ she says.
Other changes in the act let developers dispute levies, creating more headaches for a stretched council, Darby says.
‘‘We now have several parties absolutely opposed to development contributions, but they won’t stop, they don’t think they should be responsible for the growth of any development. The cost will be borne by ratepayers and that’s the unfairest outcome,’’ Darby says.