Over One Third Tell Council: Carpark Owners Should Pay Higher Rates
In large parts of the central city, council can make owners of vacant lots pay higher rates to encourage growth. NZR finds the success story is not all that it seems.
A super majority of about 84 percent support extending the city vacant differential rating. Among the 29 volumes of submissions to the council’s draft long-term plan, people saw the proposal as a means to encourage (for instance) the development of “green space” or residential housing and to discourage land-banking.
Colombo Street on Lichfield Street.
As on 30 June 2023, 33 of the inner-city sites were fully consented carparks. Another 51 sites were permitted for carparking but had “yet to be improved”. …There were a further 18 sites that had housed unconsented or illegal carparks.
~~~
Amongst the 129 submitters around 36 percent have told council they want carparks to be removed from the policy.
In its draft long-term plan, the council proposed to expand the CVD to other parts of city, including Linwood, Lyttelton, New Brighton and Sydenham. At least 129 organisations and people have made their thoughts known on the proposal and at or about 109 of the submitters voiced their approval.
“I absolutely support extra rates for owners of vacant lots, as this will also push these landowners into doing something positive with their land.” (Josephine Drysdall)
“I support the proposed changes to the city vacant differential rate, though to disincentivise land banking I would prefer to see this expanded to apply to all commercially zoned land in the district rather than just in the specified
areas.” (Finn Jackson)
“I strongly support the City Vacant Differential (CVD) programme and agree that it is a good idea to extend it beyond the City Centre. I think it could be used across the whole city, particularly in commercial areas, to discourage
landowners from land banking and from just leaving sites as wastelands that are unsightly and unsafe.” (Chrys Horn)
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The New Zealand Reporter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.