Updated 11 September 2018
The purpose of the Financial Contributions Chapter is to provide for the taking of money and/or land to mitigate the effects of development within the City. Financial contributions may be imposed as conditions of subdivision or development, or required as conditions for permitted activities. Financial contributions are distinct from conditions of consent for subdivision, land use or development that require the mitigation of effects through works and services. In general terms, financial contributions are used to recoup the proportioned cost of the provision of infrastructure for subdivision, land use and development. This contributes to the sustainable development of the City.
Most contributions towards the cost of infrastructure are taken by the City as Development Contributions under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002. There are however, four circumstances in which the Plan provides for the taking of financial contributions under the RMA to augment the Development Contributions system. These are:
- To address the statutory exemption of the Crown from the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002, and so the Development Contributions system, by taking financial contributions for subdivision, land use and development undertaken by the Crown;
- To enable the ongoing collection of and potential review of existing consent conditions that require a financial contribution;
- To take contributions for local neighbourhood reserves and community infrastructure in existing urban growth areas and infill areas to mitigate the effects of greater population density resulting from subdivision, land use and development;
- Special circumstances to mitigate the effects of the removal of a protected tree, landscape planting on industrial road frontages and parking impact fees to offset the physical provision of parking in the City Centre.
The method of calculating contributions set out in this Chapter is by the use of formulas that describe how the level of financial contribution will be determined. The inputs into these formulas are evolving with the changing prioritisation of infrastructure projects, which responds to the evolving priorities for, and patterns of, growth within the City. The prioritisation of these projects is undertaken through the Council’s Ten-Year Plan and Annual Plan processes.