Sharing the cost of Drury’s growth – Contributions Policy 2022 variation A

Auckland’s is projected to continue to grow rapidly over the next thirty years with our population reaching 2.4 million by 2050.

Delivering infrastructure to support this growth is a key part of what the council does.

Through its 10-year Budget and 30-year Infrastructure Strategy, the council acknowledged that its capacity to support growth with infrastructure is not unlimited, and it would need to prioritise. We identified a few key locations to focus our limited resources. These are all joint priority areas with the government and include the Auckland Housing Programme (Mt Roskill, Oranga, Māngere, and Northcote) and Tāmaki, The Northwest (including Red Hills, Whenuapai and Westgate), Drury, and the CRL Stations at Mt Eden and Karangahape.

What is the Auckland Council Contributions Policy

Our contributions policy is a policy under the Local Government Act that sets out charges payable by developers to fund a share of the Council’s capital expenditure on the infrastructure required to service growth. Our contributions policy aims to ensure that the cost of new infrastructure is fairly shared between developers and ratepayers, based on who causes the need for and benefits from the investments.

Development contributions are charges that recover an appropriate share of the investment costs from new development.

What is Auckland Council’s plan for its policy

To date, our contributions policy has only funded a share of Council’s infrastructure investment for the next ten years.

Development and infrastructure provision in priority growth areas will take a lot longer than ten years, and this is reflected in the investment plans in our 30-year Infrastructure Strategy.

Over time, the council is planning to update its contributions policy to include all the planned investments for the priority areas. We believe this is fairer as the total investment over a 30-year period will be matched with the total expected growth over that period and so both early and later developers will pay their fair share of the overall cost.

What’s in this proposal

This proposal is our first step in taking this longer-term view of the infrastructure needed for growth.

We are first looking at the growth area of Drury-Ōpaheke in Auckland’s south. This area is projected to grow to accommodate 22,000 new houses over the next thirty years and this will require a supporting investment of $2.869 billion.

The council’s plans for this area include a public and active transport-led approach to transport infrastructure, 43 new parks and open spaces, and a new community facility including a community centre, a leisure centre, a library, and a local pool.

In the council’s plans, this investment will take thirty years to deliver and this proposal looks to start funding a share of the Council’s investment over this whole period (not just the first 10 years) from development contributions payable under this contributions policy. This will mean that developers will contribute their fair share of the cost of infrastructure they create the need for and will benefit from. Under the proposed change to the contributions policy, the average level of contribution in the area will be $83,251 per Household Unit Equivalent., with different charges applying to different geographical areas based on the benefits accruing to each area.

We included this in our consultation last year and a number of questions were raised by submitters. This proposal looks to address these questions, refine the proposal, and include more supporting detail.

What we want your feedback on

We want to know if you think charges under our contributions policy should be based on investments in infrastructure both before and after 2031 required to support growth in Drury-Ōpaheke and allocate this across all relevant developments as proposed.

How you can have your say

You can have your say by:

• completing the online survey
• attending Consultation Updates events - An opportunity to hear details about the consultation and an opportunity for questions about its process and initial discussions:
  • 21 Sept, 9.30 am to 11.00am: A face to face consultation update at Ellen Melville Centre
  • 22 Sept, 1.30 pm to 3.00pm: Online consultation update - To register for the event, send us an email with your name and/or the organisation you represent.
  • 24 Sept, 10.00 - 11.00am: A face to Face consultation update at Drury Hall
  • 26 Oct, 1.30 - 3.00pm: A face to face Have Your Say event at Ellen Melville Hall
  • 27 Oct, 1.30 - 3.00pm: Online Hae Your Say event - To register for the event, send us an email with your name and/or the organisation you represent.
• attending Have Your Say events (dates to be confirmed)
• completing the form and emailing it to Contributions.PolicyTeam@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or posting it to:

Contributions Policy Team

Auckland Council

Private Bag 92300, Victoria Street West

Auckland, 1142

When you can have your say

You can have your say from 9 am on 13 September to 5 pm on 8 November 2022.