Hamilton City Council
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Understand what development contributions are, who needs to pay them, when, and why.
A development contribution is a one-off charge imposed on new developments. It contributes to the growth-related cost of our infrastructure network and supports the city’s long-term growth.
Development contributions are assessed on water, wastewater, stormwater, reserves, community infrastructure, and transport activities.
The Government introduced the charges via the Local Government Act 2002 so councils could recover some growth infrastructure costs from developers.
You may be required to pay a development contribution when a resource consent is granted, a building consent is granted, a Certificate of Acceptance is granted and/or a service connection is authorised.
You may need to pay a development contribution if you:
We will assess your development contribution when you apply for resource consent, building consent, service connection and/or Certificate of Acceptance.
During project planning we can let you know if you need to pay a development contribution.
Get an estimate of the cost of your development contribution.
We’ll send you a ‘notice of requirement of development contributions’ with the final development contribution amount on grant of consent or authorisation of service connection.
When you apply for a Code Compliance Certificate, a section 224(c) certificate, authorisation for service connection or when a Certificate of Acceptance or land use consent is granted, we will invoice you.
Pay your development contribution to receive your Code Compliance Certificate, section 224(c) certificate, authorisation for service connection, Certificate of Acceptance or to start your consent.
Development contributions help fund planned or existing growth infrastructure. They may only be used to fund the infrastructure activity they were taken for. The contribution is a one-off charge. Ongoing operation and maintenance of infrastructure is covered by us through rates and other charges.
Here are some examples of where your development contribution may go.
| Water | e.g. Treatment stations, reservoirs, bulk water mains, strategic pipe upsizes. |
| Wastewater | e.g. Treatment plants, interceptors, pump stations, and upgrades. |
| Stormwater | e.g. Ponds, erosion control, attenuation, overland flow management, and pipes. |
| Reserves | e.g. Local parks, sports parks, park improvements, playgrounds, landscaping. |
| Transport | e.g. Major and minor arterials, bridges, collector roads, road upgrades. |
| Community infrastructure | e.g. Public toilets, community centres. |
Anyone developing land, building, adding to, or altering the structure or use of a property may be required to pay a development contribution. You may also be required to pay when seeking consent or a Certificate of Acceptance for completed work.
Talk to us if you’re unsure.
We estimate development contribution costs at the start of the development process so you are aware of the scale of development contributions before they are due.
A ‘notice of requirement of development contributions’ which is the formal request to pay development contributions will be issued when one of the following is granted:
For detail, check section 11 ‘Stages at which development contributions may be required’ in our current Development Contributions Policy and the Local Government Act 2002.
Payment of a development contribution is due once you receive a notice of requirement for development contributions on the granting of resource consent, building consent, authorisation of service connection, or Certificate of Acceptance.
If that development contribution charge is not paid, we may:
For detail, check section 12: ‘Payment of development contributions’ in our current Development Contributions Policy and the Local Government Act 2002.
Development contributions are calculated by sharing the cost of growth-related capital expenditure in a specified area by the amount of growth expected in that area, or across the whole city for city-wide growth infrastructure (e.g. the ring road and wastewater plant capacity upgrades).
Contributions will vary depending on the Development Contributions Policy applicable to the development, the type of development, and the area of the city that you develop in.
With population growth comes increased demand for infrastructure. Growth in the city cannot be sustained unless we fund a portion of growth-related infrastructure through development contributions.
Developers benefit from using existing infrastructure and will place additional pressure on it, requiring us to increase capacity or build new infrastructure. If we did not charge development contributions, existing residents would be paying for new infrastructure that others will profit from.
This is why developers are asked to contribute towards Council's growth-related costs.
Refer to the policy that was in force at the time your resource consent, building consent, Certificate of Acceptance and/or service connection was lodged. Development contributions must be consistent with the content of that policy.
We can confirm which policy is applicable to your development. Ask our Development Contributions team if you need to view policies prior to 1 July 2018.
Our most recent development contribution policies are:
Development Contributions Policy 2023/2024
Operative from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.
Some development contribution charges in the 2023/24 Development Contributions Policy have been capped at a specific level.
Non-residential charges have been capped per 100sqm gross floor area (exclusive of GST) at $20,000 for industrial; $30,000 for commercial; and $40,000 for retail; for the total of water, wastewater and transport activities and correspondingly for stormwater on a site area basis. Where the base charge is less than the capped amount, the base charge applies. See section 9.8 of the Policy for more details
Development Contributions Policy 2022/2023
Operative from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Development Contributions Policy 2021/2022
Operative from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
Development Contributions Policy 2019/2020
Operative from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2021.
NOTE: We have updated the interest rates to take into account an interest rate error in the development contributions model, and a revised schedule of charges, for the 2019/20 Development Contributions Policy. This is published below.
Any over payments made by developers under the affected policies (including appropriate interest) are in the process of being refunded. Please contact us if you have any questions about that process.
Revised schedules 2019 2020 DC Policy.
Development Contributions Policy 2018/19
Operative from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.
NOTE: We have updated the interest rates in the development contributions model and published a revised schedule of charges for the 2018/19 Development Contributions Policy - see below.
Any over payments made by developers under the affected policies (including appropriate interest) are in the process of being refunded. Please contact us if you have any questions about that.
Please see below for the supporting information referred to in the Development Contributions Policy.
Last updated 11 April 2023