The consultation on the draft Development Contributions Policy 2021 has now closed. Deliberations will be held with the Long Term Plan deliberations, and the policy will be adopted 24 June 2021.
Council is asking for feedback on an updated draft Development Contributions Policy 2021.
Nelson City Council’s draft Development Contributions Policy has been designed to ensure that those who create the need for new or additional assets contribute their fair share to the cost of providing those assets rather than the ratepayer having to meet all of these costs. This includes new or additional roading, stormwater pipes, sewers, community infrastructure and parks and reserves.
The draft policy also reflects the need to encourage residential intensification to provide more housing for the growing population. Some changes to the DC policy are designed to encourage residential intensification.
The draft Policy proposes changes to development contributions that will see contributions towards reserves reduced, and contributions to critical infrastructure increased. The net result will be that contributions paid by most developers will be reduced if the policy is adopted.
The draft Policy is open for consultation at the same time as the draft Long Term Plan 2021-31 (LTP), as there are links between the two.
Following consultation, Council can either adopt the draft Policy or amend it based on the submissions received. .
The proposed significant changes to the Development Contributions Policy 2018 include the following:
- Applying a development contributions waiver to all city centre residential developments, rather than limiting them to 30 Housing units of demand per year. This avoids a first in first served approach, which is difficult to administer and doesn’t neccessarily reflect developer’s application timing.
- Reducing the greenfield reserves contribution from 1.7Ha per 1000 residents to 1.1Ha per 1000 residents for reserves in greenfield areas, in line with the draft Long Term Plan 2021-2031. These changes are proposed to reflect the expected provision of land in new urban areas for reserves.
- Changing the Development Contribution to a fixed fee for greenfield neighbourhood reserves based on average sale values of bare residential land in the preceding 12 months. This means developers have certainty about exactly how much the reserves contribution is at the start of the project and avoids the need to obtain valuations.
- Replacing the neighbourhood reserves land Development Contribution with a neighbourhood reserves intensification Development Contribution that applies in the existing built urban area. This means development inside the existing urban boundary provides a contribution towards the upgrade of existing reserves, rather than the purchase of land for new ones.
- Adding a waiver for state-integrated schools.
- Removing the 25% discount for brownfield intensification in favour of retaining the discount for 1 and 2 bedroom dwellings on the same title and reducing the intensification reserves contribution.
- Simplifying the policy complexity and readability, to help us all.
The development contributions amount for infrastructure, based on the draft Long Term Plan 2021-31 is approximately 55% higher than in the 2018 Development Contributions Policy. However, the proposed reductions in contributions for neighbourhood Reserves will offset this. There is expected to be a net reduction in contributions payable by developers of residential sites. The following table provides an explanation based on an example for both intensification and greenfield areas.
2021 draft Policy (excl. GST) | 2018 Policy (excl. GST) | |||
Intensification | Greenfield | Intensification | Greenfield | |
Category | Any intensification per HUD | 600sqm site @ $350,000 | 100sqm site @ $350,000 | 600sqm site @ $350,000 |
Stormwater | $5,520 | $5,520 | $3,460 | $3,460 |
Wastewater | $6,570 | $6,570 | $5,360 | $5,360 |
Water supply | $3,620 | $3,620 | $2,200 | $2,200 |
Transportation | $1,720 | $1,720 | $1,470 | $1,470 |
Community Infrastructure | $2,430 | $2,430 | $300 | $300 |
Infrastructure total | $19,860 | $19,860 | $12,790 | $12,790 |
Neighbourhood reserves (greenfield) | $ - | $10,725 | $70,000 | $23,333 |
Neighbourhood reserves improvement (intensification) | $130 | $ - | $300 | $ - |
General reserves | $730 | $730 | $1,240 | $1,240 |
Reserves total | $860 | $11,455 | $71,540 | $24,573 |
Total | $20,720 | $31,315 | $84,330 | $37,363 |
Please note: All submissions (including the names and contact details of submitters) are public information and will be available to the public and media in various reports and formats including on the Nelson City Council website.
Personal information will also be used for administration relating to the subject matter of submissions. Submitters have the right to access and correct any personal information included in any reports, information or submissions.
