Carrot for CBD developments
Central Hamilton developments will get a special deal for a little longer – but it’s for a limited time only.
Currently, CBD projects don’t have to pay development contributions, provided the project fits with Hamilton City Council goals. Council was going to give the remission scheme the chop in a revised development contributions policy, but softened to phasing it out over three years.
‘‘To be crude, it’s like changing it from a Briscoes one-day sale to ‘This sale must end next week’,’’ Councillor Mark Bunting said.
He suggested the three-year shift, stretching it out a year from the staff recommendation of two years – and the policy is due to be adopted in late June.
There has already been a surge in developers wanting to get projects through since future remissions had been in doubt, staff reports said.
‘‘Nothing is a great incentive like the fact that an offer is going to end,’’ Bunting said. It’s a sign to developers to ‘‘shake your tail feather and get into it’’ before the benefit goes, he said.
That could do more for the CBD than keeping it forever. The idea behind the remission scheme – introduced in 2013/2014 – was to revive Hamilton’s central business district.
Council proposed removing it from July 2018 and some developers said that would stop further developments going ahead.
Cr Angela O’Leary was one of several who wanted the remission to stay longer.
‘‘Why would we stop something now, or even slow something down, when it’s working?’’ she said.
There were years of complaints about developers turning away from the CBD, she said, so council talked with developers and introduced the remission to stop that.
Cr Garry Mallett argued that ratepayers would pay the fees that developers didn’t, but Cr Ryan Hamilton pointed out another possibility.
‘‘If there’s no development, there are no fees paid.’’
But council would be favouring developers in the CBD, Cr Leo Tooman said, and he didn’t support that.
Councillors also voted on several other aspects of their development contributions policy, including not to cap charges for certain suburbs and not to index charges to long-term inflation.
On the CBD remission, councillors voted 9-4 to phase it out over three years. Those opposed were: Crs James Casson, Siggi Henry, Garry Mallett and Angela O’Leary.
Councillors voted 10-3 to receive the full report on the development contributions policy, which is due to be adopted on June 28.
Those against it were Crs Siggi Henry, Angela O’Leary, and Paula Southgate. Henry said she felt like she had been ‘‘railroaded’’ and hadn’t done residents and ratepayers justice.
O’Leary said the increased costs would be passed on to Hamilton residents through higher house prices, and Southgate was concerned about aspects including a plan to vary charges on a by-bedroom basis. The discussion was part of councillors’ deliberations on the long-term plan, which will continue on Friday, June 1 and Tuesday, June 5.
The draft plan will then be audited before it is adopted in a meeting on Thursday, June 28 and Friday, June 29.