Development contributions assessments and charges

The Council assesses all developments for development contributions at the time it receives a completed application for resource consent (land use), building consent, certificate of acceptance or connection to Council infrastructure.

The Council looks to assess developments at the earliest stage possible, normally at the time of resource consent for subdivisions in the case of greenfield development and at the time of building consent for infill development.

Residential developments are assessed on the demand they are deemed to place on Council infrastructure and facilities, measured on the basis of a household unit equivalent (HUE) which is the demand from an average residential home. Multi-home developments therefore are assessed as multiple HUEs.

Development contributions for commercial developments are assessed as a proportion of the demand from an average residential home. The assessment is more complex as it depends on floor size, type of business and the location of the development.

Commercial development is assessed as 1 HUE for each new business unit created only for reserves activities and community infrastructure.

You may request an estimate of development contributions(external link) for your development.

The Council uses local area catchments to assess development contributions for most activities. Using a catchment approach enables the Council to better identify the cost of providing growth infrastructure to different parts of the district and to charge development contributions that reflect those costs.

View maps showing the catchments for each activity.

Development contributions for regional parks, sports parks and garden and heritage parks are assessed using a single district-wide catchment approach. This means all developments pay the same development contribution per household unit equivalent (HUE) regardless of where in the district they are located.

To calculate the development contributions required for one HUE requires adding all applicable district-wide charges and all applicable catchment charges.

A development is assessed for additional demand placed on the Council's infrastructure only. Any previous demand on Council infrastructure from the site is recognised through existing demand credits. If your development is replacing like with like you will not be required to pay development contributions.

Existing demand credits expire 10 years after the previous development on a site last exerted demand on infrastructure. If no credits apply the land is regarded as undeveloped and deemed to have one household unit equivalent (HUE) existing demand credit.

Intensified redevelopment of a site (say three townhouses replacing one house) will be assessed for the additional demand only - two HUEs in this example.

Limitations to existing demand credits:

• Existing demand credits cannot be used to reduce the development contribution for any activity below zero.
• Credits from one activity cannot be used to offset development contributions required for another activity.

Redevelopment of a commercial site requires an assessment of the existing building(s) to identify the demand credits available to offset the development contributions for the new development.

Contact the development contributions team to discuss having an estimate assessment undertaken.

Reserves

Network infrastructure

Community infrastructure

Development contributions must be paid within 30 days of the invoice being issued. The Council will act to recover the debt if not paid on the terms of the invoice.

The law allows the Council to withhold services until the debt is paid, such as:

• Withholding a Resource Management Act Section 224(c) certificate preventing the start of a resource consent.
• Withholding a building code compliance certificate.
• Preventing connection to Council water and / or wastewater networks.

The Council may also register a development contributions debt under the Statutory Land Charges Registration Act 1928 as a charge on the title of the land.

If the Council acts to recover the debt, it will also seek interest and costs associated with debt recovery.

The Council has looked to make the development contributions policy as user-friendly as possible and we continue to look to improve. 

We acknowledge development contributions can be a complex issue and developers are likely to have questions. 

If you have questions our development contributions team is happy to respond.

Email us at: developmentcontributions@ccc.govt.nz or phone the Council on 03 941 8999 and ask to speak with the development contributions team.