|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
July, 2011 The future of council-assisted affordable housing in the Southern Lakes is up in the air as developers seek to fight it in the Court of Appeal.Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy committee members were given an update on a plan change first proposed in 2007, at a meeting this month. The change, if approved, would require developers of rezoned land to provide affordable housing or pay levies under the Resource Management Act. Developers have opposed the plan, labelling it an unfair tax potentially granting too much power to the authority. A group of companies, Wanaka developers Infinity Investments and Allan Dippie's Willowridge Developments and Orchard Road Holdings, appealed a High Court decision that approved the intent of the plan. The developers have sought leave to take the case to the Court of Appeal. After the meeting, Infinity Investment Group general manager Marc Bretherton said existing stakeholder agreements between developers and the council already provided affordable housing. "The way the plan change is constructed is incredibly difficult to understand. We have been grappling with it for three or four years. Fundamentally our issue is what the plan change seeks to do is to fix something that's not broken." Council general manager policy and planning Philip Pannett told councillors the core of the debate was how provision would be triggered. Most housing in the district could not be described as affordable and the court ruled the plan's intent as legitimate, he said. Without a plan change developers would not be compelled to contribute to affordable housing. "It's going to get very hard for those who contribute towards it when they see other developers who say there's no law and we don't have to do it." Council senior policy analyst Scott Figenshow said affordable housing was defined as homes costing $250,000, rented or owned by workers earning between $50,000 and $60,000. The question for the council was how to stimulate development of lower cost housing. "We have very few units coming in at the $250,000 price range. A lot of the new supply market is serving the visitor market ... not towards permanent residents." During a High Court hearing last year the developers argued it was not the business of the council to use financial contributions to subsidise Soviet-style planning with the authority acting as Robin Hood. Source: The Southland Times
|
||
|
Queenstown Property Limited |
||
