From the mayor's desk: Growth is good says Stratford district mayor Neil Volzke

Stratford mayor Neil Volzke, pictured at the Pembroke Rd subdivision earlier this year, says the current building growth in the district brings many community benefits.

Opinion:

Following the June 30 end to the council's financial year, the council is required to produce a plethora of annual reports that cover off statistics and performance measures across every aspect of our activities.

At the Policy and Services meeting held last week, the impact of Covid lockdowns and restrictions was very evident, with the reports showing usage of various council-owned facilities taking major hits.

The aerodrome use plummeted to only around 10 per cent of the level of the previous two years, while the centennial restrooms and memorial hall hireage also showed a marked decline in use to the lowest levels experienced in the last three years.

Obviously, this results in reduced revenue for the council but fortunately not at a level that will pose any significant problems.

The one statistic that didn't show a decline and, in fact, went rocketing upwards was the number of new dwellings consented for the 2020/21 financial year.

There were 64 new dwellings consented in 2020/21 compared to 19 in the 2019/20 year. This was a huge increase in activity despite the hindrances caused by Covid. Across all activity where a building consent is required, there was a marked increase with 318 building consents issued in 2020/21 compared to 122 in the 2019/20 year.

While this volume increase has put a real pressure on our regulatory department to meet statutory timelines, our staff and external contractors have managed to meet the challenge and keep things moving.

It doesn't appear that there will be any let up in building activity in the immediate future, as land subdivision activity continues at significantly higher levels than we have historically experienced.

The number of applications and the scale of the subdivisions have also increased. Officers have recently issued consent for the subdivision of a Hills Rd property into 20 new lots and have another application for the subdivision of an Opunake Rd property into 12 new lots.

Combined they make up a similar number to the council's own recent subdivision which has been a major contributor to the level of construction activity over the last financial year. In addition, other developments already under way provide at least 30 more building sections, available now.

Looking ahead, the council has been approached recently by other developers showing an interest in some larger scale investments in the district, yet another positive indicator.

At a local level this housing growth is vital to ensure the district progresses and keeps pace with the rest of New Zealand that is experiencing similar activity levels.

The benefits derived from growth are many but at a very rudimentary level, every ratepayer benefits simply because the overall rates burden of the district will be shared across a greater number of properties. This helps keeps rate increases at a lower level.

Let's use the council's Pembroke Rd subdivision as an example of the effect. Prior to being subdivided and developed as residential lots, the rates collected from this property would have been less than $10K per annum.

When fully developed with houses on each section, collectively the new rates paid will be in excess of a $100K from the same piece of land. The difference represents a saving for all existing ratepayers, as that is money we don't have to pay and furthermore, it is ongoing, year on year.

To put this into perspective, in the Stratford District $120K equates roughly to a 1 per cent rate increase.

New housing creates opportunities, either directly or indirectly, for new families to move into the district. Anecdotally this has been the case over the last few years and it follows a portion of those will be young families with children, boosting school roles and daycare centres.

More people means more demand for local services and products in a variety of businesses, which preserves jobs and overtime will increase employment opportunities, not to mention the construction jobs created along the way.

I could go on but this column length doesn't allow, so I will abruptly sum up, growth is good.