Proposed increases to development contributions would throw the brakes on Dunedin’s business growth, the city council has been told.
Speaking at hearings for the Dunedin City Council’s nine-year plan yesterday, developer Allan Dippie, of Willowridge Developments, said the charges were necessary but needed to be at the right level for growth to occur.
Alongside the nine-year plan, the city council is consulting on changes to its development contributions policy, saying significant increases in fees are proposed for some areas, based on the level of spending planned to accommodate growth.
Mr Dippie said trying to foster new businesses and put up new buildings would become difficult — development in Dunedin was already "on the edge of being viable".
"A sensible company would probably just do what we do elsewhere," he said.
"But we’ve got a great fondness for Dunedin, really, and we’d like to do development here."
His company was working to build a new business in South Dunedin but under the proposed increases, the development contribution would go from $47,000 to $75,000, he said.
"That would just simply put the brakes on that, it wouldn’t happen and we wouldn’t employ people.
"I would encourage you to really get it right," he told councillors.
"We need people and jobs before anything else."
Earlier in the week, Middlemarch resident and Otago regional councillor Kate Wilson spoke in a private capacity and said until an Otago Daily Times article on the matter, the community was unaware of proposals to lift development contributions.
Developers’ contributions to the council could increase by more than $36,000 for a home in Middlemarch — "the cost of a section", she said.
"It will make people move to the rural residential zone.
"The risks of rapid development in Middlemarch are low, the risks that such an increase pose to the township’s economic development and water quality are substantial," she said in her written submission.
The council needed to have more consultation and information available to community, she said.
