The council currently does not charge development contributions for new developments, although it plans to reconsider this as part of its rating and revenue review, which is likely to start in late-2018.
Mr Brown said the council refused to meet with him to discuss the disputed bill. He paid $500 for a disputes meeting but that meeting never happened, and court negotiation "went nowhere" because the council's lawyer would not negotiate.
Mr Brown said he informally met with chief executive Shaun Clarke who told him that if he paid the bill, Mr Clarke would ensure all of Mr Brown's building consents were processed on time.
Mr Brown is now concerned that because he has not paid the bill, his consents are taking "months" to be processed, including the building consent for a Ministry of Social Development building in North Park.
"It's not good — it's vindictive, nasty behaviour."
But the council disagrees with Mr Brown's version of events.
Dean Myburgh, general manager — district services, said the $500 payment was a fee to reassess the disputed development contribution and has been credited against the debt owing.
Court documents show that the original charge was $20,700 and this was reduced to the $13,200 in August 2014.
The council also met with Mr Brown in a judicial settlement conference on September 5 2017, but that was unsuccessful in resolving the matter and it is now before the District Court, Dr Myburgh said.
The developer of North Park Drive subdivision was Far North Land Limited, not Wayne Brown nor Waahi Paraone Limited, the current development legal entity, he said.
"Far North Land Limited is a totally separate legal entity and it undertook the road widening, flood mitigation on so on. Mr Brown or his current company cannot offset his development contributions against this work."
Dr Myburgh said the building consent for the Ministry of Social Development building was received on January 24 this year and issued on February 19 — 12 working days when taking out weekends, public holidays and days the consent was on hold awaiting further information from the developer.
The council's average time to process commercial consents is 23 working days and the building department is now reviewing processes to get back within the statutory 20-day timeframe, he said.
But Mr Brown said the count of 12 working days for the consent was "absolute lies," with the building consent first being lodged in November and returned to him by "snail mail".
It was only due to the intervention of Mayor John Carter that the consent was finally processed, he said.
Mr Brown also said it did not matter that the subdivision work was done by a different company, when the fact was the work was done and no development contributions should be needed.
"We've done the additional work then they have development contributions and they want another bite of the cherry," he said. "Development contributions are not a punishment. They're to pay for anything that would cost the council as a result of the development."
Mr Brown said the council is showing bias towards non-local developers. The Warehouse in Kaitaia was allowed to have trucks enter through a side entrance on North Park Road at the expense of car parking on the road, rather than use a rear entrance.
The Warehouse also failed to clear its silt traps after the building was developed, causing flooding on Mr Brown's land, he said.
But Dr Myburgh strongly denied favouritism or bias.
"There has been no favouritism shown to any business. All applications received are given the same consideration and priority."
