$29m for economic development
Recommendations made on Aquatic Centre, safety plan
Rotorua economic development projects and recovery are set to get a $29 million boost in the next two years if recommendations made by a council committee are adopted.
The recommendation was made yesterday during the first day of a Strategy, Policy and Finance Committee meeting to deliberate on the Rotorua Lakes Council Long-term Plan 2021-2031.
The Long-term Plan (LTP) sets out what the council wants to achieve over the next 10 years and how that will be funded.
The plan’s consultation document was made public last month and sought feedback on the level of investment proposed for the Aquatic Centre, a community safety plan, fees and charges and rates affordability including a proposal to lower the uniform annual general charge.
It also asked for feedback on topics such as economic development and climate change.
The consultation document identified council’s preferred options for each of these and yesterday the committee recommended the council include each of the preferred options in the final plan, which is due for adoption at the end of June. The council’s preferred option for the
Aquatic Centre was a full redevelopment at a cost of $28.3m. It would include a range of new facilities including a bombing pool and a cafe and would mean a contribution from the council of nearly $17.9m and a rates increase of $8.09 per household each year. The balance would be secured through external investment.
Councillors Raj Kumar and Peter Bentley were the only committee members to oppose the preferred option. Both said they would prefer investment in the centre but not to the same extent. This alternative option would cost the council $17.4m.
“When we first mooted doing option three the world was an entirely different place,” Bentley said. “We made the decision based on the fact everything was rosy in tourism, we made the decision based on there being only 200 homeless in the city.”
Councillor Sandra Kai Fong pointed out the cost difference between the two options to the council was $500,000.
A funding boost for a community safety plan divided committee members but they voted 7-6 to recommend including council’s preferred option in the final plan. The preferred option was to boost investment in
community safety by $500,000 to $1.14m and this was supported by 29 per cent of submitters to the plan. Almost 44 per cent supported increasing investment in community safety by $750,000 instead.
Mayor Steve Chadwick said community safety had been a “fundamental issue” during the 2019 election campaign. “This, along with housing, are the two issues that are the blot on our landscape.”
Chadwick supported the preferred $500,000 as throwing more money at the issue wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem and the council could always review the investment in the future.
Shirley Trumper, who represents the rural community, said she wouldn’t support the preferred option because the rural community did not believe it would help them. Investing an additional $500,000 would increase rates by $17.20 a year or $0.33 a week while $750,000 would increase rates by $25.80 a year or $0.50 a week. The committee also unanimously recommended the council adjust fees and charges for some user-based services. This was the preferred option in the consultation document and supported by a majority of submitters.
In consultation, the council also proposed decreasing the uniform annual general charge, the fixed portion of the general rates, by $50. This was supported by about 38 per cent of the 289 submitters while almost 45 per cent preferred to reduce this by $75. Lowering this charge would see general rates shift back to the proportions of the district’s capital value and rural ratepayers would need to pick up some of this cost. All committee members but Trumper supported the preferred option.
The committee moved to support the outcomes in a Draft Economic Development Strategy and to move ahead with committing $29m towards economic development — made up of $9m in 2020/21 and the remainder in 2021/22.
Deputy mayor Dave Donaldson fully supported the proposals. “As of last week, MSD had 10,000 people on the Jobseeker benefit in Rotorua. If that’s not convincing, I don’t know what is. We need to get behind economic development and create jobs.”