The key purpose of the Development Contributions Policy is to ensure that growth, and the cost of infrastructure to meet that growth, is funded by those who cause the need for that infrastructure.
The Development Contributions Policy explores why development contributions are needed, what they fund, when they need to be paid, and what you’re likely to pay.
On this page you'll also find a guide to development contributions that provides a simple overview of the policy and answers some common questions, as well as the base fees used to calculate the contribution you'll pay to Council.
Amendments to the Policy
The Development Contributions Policy was amended on 10 August 2022 as a result of a resolution by Council. The amendments included:
Further amendments were made to the Policy in June 2023, in line with the changes adopted under the Long Term Plan 2021-2041 Amendment. These amendments are effective from 1 July 2023 and include:
- updating the development contribution amounts in line with the updated Schedule of Assets;
- removing the option for Council to charge development contributions on land use consents; and
- changing the time that development contributions are invoiced for building consents, from the time of first inspection to the time of completion/lapsing.
Horowhenua District Council Development Contributions Policy 2021 (2023 LTPA version)(PDF, 10MB)
Horowhenua District Council Development Contributions Policy 2021 - Guidance Document(PDF, 228KB)
If you have questions about development contributions for your project, call us on 06 366 0999 or email enquiries@horowhenua.govt.nz
As new development occurs throughout the Horowhenua District it places demand on the Council to provide a range of new and upgraded infrastructure. It's important to ensure that costs of providing new assets for development are adequately and sustainably accounted for.
Development contributions are provided for under the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA 2002) and are able to be used to fund capital expenditure required as a result of growth. Development contributions are paid by the developer or land owner at the time of subdivision, service connection, land use consent or building consent.
Horowhenua District Council previously charged development contributions between 2006 and 2015; however, in 2015 decided to stop charging development contributions under the Development Contributions Policy and introduced a Financial Contributions Policy.
Consultation on the Draft Policy was undertaken concurrently with the consultation on the Long Term Plan 2021-2041 in March/April 2021, hearings were held in May 2021, and Council adopted the Development Contributions Policy 2021, to take immediate effect on 1 July 2021.
The Horowhenua District is growing rapidly.
Horowhenua has experienced growth at an average of 2% per annum since 2014. In late 2020, Council adopted its growth assumptions for the Long Term Plan 2021-2041, a growth rate of 2.6% per year for the first 10 years of the LTP, increasing to 2.9% for the second decade.
Strong growth means that Council needs to plan for and invest in a range of infrastructure, such as for water supply, stormwater, wastewater and our parks and reserves. When growth in population and business takes place, new development is carried out to accommodate it.
The extra traffic, water consumption, wastewater generation and stormwater run-off from that development, all take up spare capacity in Council’s infrastructure.
Unless provision is made, that capacity can be used up over time and networks start to fail. Traffic congestion, low water pressure or quality, wastewater overflows and flooding can all signal a failure to keep up with growth.
In some cases, parks, libraries and other public amenities can become crowded as the capacity they were designed for is used up. To avoid this, Council plans ahead and puts capital spending in its budgets to provide more capacity to service growth when it is needed.