Hamilton City Council today responded to consultation feedback on its proposed Development Contributions (DC) Policy Update, voting not to include additional capital projects in the updated 2019/20 Policy.

Consultation on the proposed Policy concluded on 29 April 2019, and sought feedback on six proposed changes. One of these key changes was the addition of further capital projects with a growth component into the calculations for DCs. Today’s decision, which was made prior to verbal submissions during an Extraordinary Council Meeting, excludes those projects from the proposed Policy.

The decision reflected feedback from submitters which was strongly against introducing the additional charges for the coming financial year.

Further decisions will be considered at the Council meeting of 21 May 2019. The remaining key changes are a capped charge for DCs for industrial, commercial and retail development in Rotokauri, reviewing estimated costs from the last financial year (replacing them with actual costs where these are known), and changing some definitions in the policy.

A change to DC remissions in the Central Business District (CBD) is also proposed. Under the 2018-28 10-Year Plan the Council decided to phase the former 100% CBD remission out across three years. This meant a 66% remission in the current 2018/19 Policy, reducing to 33% in 2020/21, and removed altogether from 1 July 2021.

The proposed 2019/20 Policy extends the current 66% CBD remission to 30 June 2021, when the remission is removed completely. If implemented, the decision means developers would pay one third of DC costs in the CBD for the next two years and full DCs after that.

The updated Policy is planned to be adopted in June and will be effective from July 1, 2019.

Minutes from today’s meeting are at www.hamilton.govt.nz/agendas

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