Council Growth Funds: Are they a Jam-pot for Other Projects?

🚨 Council Growth Funds: Are they a Jam-pot for Other Projects?

Here is an example (I am not debating the project, merely the ‘pot’ the funds came from):

The fundamental problem: Auckland Council collected ~$24,000 from each new free standing or duplex home built across greater Papakura for stormwater. They used these funds to subsidise land remediation benefiting specific areas.

Initially budgeted at $22 million, the stormwater allocations are now beyond $54 million (2023).

🤔 My main concern is how the money was allowed to be repurposed from stormwater demand to land remediation.

Documentation shows that of a $54 million allocation, only about $5 million actually addresses flooding mitigation, the bulk went toward making poorly-suited land developable (and one document even says it: “poses a reputational risk to Council and the possibility that developers may take legal action against Council if this project does not proceed or is delayed).

Many of these contributing new homes had properties with no hydrological connection to the wetlands. Their increased stormwater demand may have been mitigated by detention tanks and if not, the wetlands drainage was not due to their increase in housing.

This practice directly contradicts the Local Government Act 2002, which says that development contributions must be used for their intended purpose.

The law exists precisely to prevent this type of financial redirection.

Is this improper allocation of development contributions?

The council has effectively reached into the pockets of all new homes across Papakura to solve development problems for land that should never have been approved for development without proper funding mechanisms in place.

This isn’t right that it came from the stormwater money and how did it get approved?

I quote from Hills (2014) & a review from 2023:

✅ … presence of peat soils, any potential drawdown or lowering of groundwater, even through seasonal variation, may cause ground consolidation or oxidation resulting in ground settlement.

✅ … primarily a result of ineffective stormwater drainage but also due to flat
topography, high groundwater tables and limited soakage capacity of the peat fields.

✅ … project consists of approximately 3 km of new waterway that will contain and convey the existing 100-year floodplain, allowing the surrounding land to be developed. Stage 1 of the project was completed in June 2020.

✅ The complete scheme is designed to support 90 ha of development area… land to be serviced has recently been acquired by …. who is seeking to engage with Council.

It also allowed a sideline business to establish and council quietly went about reassessing the estimates for those ‘who knew about some technicalities’ (word on the street says only 20% of the developers), the rest paid and K.O had a special rate.