Developer contests levies after delays

A developer is challenging a $1 million levies bill from the North Shore City Council on the grounds that the bill soared during prolonged processing of a resource consent.

The Cornerstone Group says delays caused it to be overcharged by more than $100,000 in developer contributions on an Albany housing project.

Seeking a refund on behalf of the group, Giles Bramwell, of the Harrison Grierson consultancy, said the council took 2 1/2 times longer than the statutory time to grant a resource consent.

He told the council's management committee yesterday that council officers were "not blessed with the power of flawless judgment" and sometimes unreasonable requests were made.

Council requests for further information were forwarded over an extended period and interrupted progress.

"Some requests were reasonable but some were obstructive and time-consuming and costly.

"In some cases information requests were unnecessary because requested information was already in the application material."

An application for resource consent for the 76-unit project in Masons Rd was lodged in November 2003 and took 10 calendar months to be approved.

Mr Bramwell said processing took 49 working days when the statutory time was 20 working days.

During that time, on July 1 last year, the council brought in its developer contribution scheme which had a formula for projects to pay towards impact on community services.

The consent process should have been completed before that deadline.

Instead, the developer was caught with a new and higher levy formula for wastewater and parks and reserves contribution. As a result, said Mr Bramwell, the company held it was overcharged by more than $100,000 for wastewater treatment levy alone.

The excess for parks and reserves was yet to be assessed.

The council had sought $210,300 for wastewater treatment and $241,074 for parks and reserves.

Other items in the bill attracted a total of $536,940 but Mr Bramwell said levies for these were not being challenged.

Committee chairman Gary Holmes adjourned the review of the levies to give council officers time to examine requests for information.