Have your say on Putāruru Growth (LTP Amendment)

The South Waikato is growing. We have to rise to the challenge of growth and plan for it. More and more people want to live and work here, which is great for the continued economic success of our towns and district, but it puts pressure on our infrastructure.

Council has been working with the Putāruru community for over two years on a Putāruru Growth Plan, identifying parcels of land, working with landowners, establishing infrastructure requirements and refining the land options.

“We have now developed three options that we are seeking feedback on,” said Ben Smit, Council’s Chief Executive. “Broadly the options are to ignore growth and not plan for it, to plan for growth over 50 years or plan for growth over 30 years.

“When Council consults with its community, we don’t always have a preferred option,” continued Mr Smit, “But this time we do. We would prefer to plan for 30 years of growth as not planning for growth will stagnate our towns and planning out too far is very risky and requires Council to commit too much investment in water and wastewater infrastructure. Planning for 30 years of growth provides opportunity for development without biting off more than we can chew.”

“To ensure the cost of growth doesn’t fall on ratepayers we will be introducing Development Contributions,” said Andrew Pascoe, Council’s Development Engineer. “Development Contributions ensure that the costs of growth-related infrastructure is paid by developers as part of the sub-division process; and not by ratepayers.”

“As part of this LTP Amendment, Council also wants to borrow from the Local Government Funding Agency so we can secure low interest loans, lower than what we can secure through our bank,” said Mr Smit.

Our community is encouraged to have its say. Consultation is open from Wednesday 20 November and closing Friday 20 December. We will have hearings in late January. Also next year we will be consulting on the Development Contribution Policy and the District Plan re-zoning.

“Unfortunately, this is a fairly complex subject,” said Mr Pascoe. “Council is hosting three public sessions on Monday 2 December at The Plaza –10am, 4pm and 6pm. This is a good opportunity to listen to more detail and ask questions.”

ENDS. Words: 368