Council fees exceed cost of Whangaripo build

“Can you please explain how it is possible that a cabin of this size and value is able to incur these kinds of costs to the council?” she asked. “We are not developers, we are not bringing new people into the area. It is simply a basic cabin for private use, for a family that has lived in the area and paid rates for the area for the past 20-plus years.”

In response, a council official indicated that the issue of connection to services was irrelevant, as the Parkers were not being assessed for that.

“Development contributions are collected to upgrade infrastructure throughout the Auckland region,” he wrote. “The cost of a project has no bearing on the development contributions assessment, it is purely assessed on what is proposed.”

Council provided a breakdown of the development assessment:

• $3986 for reserve acquisitions

• $2265 for reserve development

• $684 for community infrastructure

• $4044 for transport

This amounted to just over $12,620 including GST.

The amounts were broken down further into sums for distinct funding areas – rural north upper, Auckland-wide, rural north, or north. More digging by Melany established that most of these amounts were for areas, services or proposed developments far from the ‘rural north upper’ region.

Writing again to the same council official, she shared her findings, asked again why her cabin should incur such costs, and said she wanted to lodge a formal objection.

But in response, the official told her she had failed to lodge her objection within the specified time period – 15 working days from the day she received the notice of the assessment (in August). Therefore, “council’s file is now closed”.

Melany said the 15-day requirement was not spelled out clearly before. (Previous communications from council did make reference to an official document, which in turn explained the objection procedure.)

“They keep saying in their policy that everything’s transparent and it’s easy to find,” she said. “But it’s not, because they just put up walls. If you don’t fit within their timeframe they’re not going to talk to you – that’s their ‘out’ card.”

“Fairly applied”

Auckland Council plans to deliver hundreds of projects citywide between 2021 and 2051, at an estimated cost of $11.22 billion, of which it expects to raise $3.83 billion from development contributions.

Council financial policy manager

Andrew Duncan said council budgeted to maintain assets providing services, to improve services to existing residents, and “to accommodate the growth we’re experiencing in the region”.

It had to prioritise, “because, like anybody, we’ve got to work within financial restraints”. Some of the investments would provide benefits to the entire region, so costs were shared across all developments anywhere in the region, he said, citing the city rail link as an example.

Other investments, for instance a park in Wellsford, may benefit much smaller local funding areas, and those costs are shared across developing properties in that particular area.

Duncan said the regional weighted average development contribution was $23,895.51. Tiny homes incurred a smaller cost, given their smaller footprint.

Council policy has been “fairly applied” to the property in question, “reflecting the assessment, and applying a fair share of the costs of the investments the council is making to support growth across the city”.

“The purpose of development contributions is to recover a fair, equitable and proportionate share of the total cost of capital expenditure necessary to service growth over the long term,” Duncan said.