Council is required to comply with a range of requirements for financial accountability and public access to information in relation to community infrastructure contributions. These are addressed in the EP&A Regulation and include:
These records are available at Council’s Nowra Administrative Centre.
The Plan contains monetary contribution rates that, when applied to certain residential development, will result in the total monetary contribution exceeding the residential development cap contained in the Minister's Environmental Planning and Assessment (Local Infrastructure Contributions) Direction 2012 (as amended). A list of contribution project rates which when included in the total contributions payable to Council that exceed the cap are detailed in Schedule 6 of this Plan. Where contribution project rates exceed the cap for residential development, Council will not charge contributions in excess of the cap (except for those contribution projects with a current exemption from the cap).
Council may accept an offer by the applicant to provide an “in-kind” contribution project (i.e. the applicant completes part or all of the project work identified in this Plan) or provide another kind of material public benefit as an alternative to making a community infrastructure contribution that is required as a condition of development consent.
Council may accept such alternatives in the following circumstances:
Acceptance of any such alternative is at the sole discretion of Council. Council may review the valuation of works or land to be dedicated, and may seek the services of an independent person to verify their value. In these cases, all costs and expenses borne by Council in determining the value of the works or land must be paid for by the applicant.
Section 7.4 of the EP&A Act allows Council to enter into a planning agreement with a developer and sets out the legislative requirements for those agreements.
A planning agreement is an alternative mechanism for providing development contributions and may be used in place of, or to supplement Council’s adopted Section 7.11 Development Contribution Plan (in part or full). Development contributions may be satisfied through one of a combination of the following mechanisms:
Under a planning agreement, a developer may agree to provide or fund public amenities and public services, affordable housing and transport or other infrastructure.
Refer to Council’s Voluntary Planning Agreement Policy for more information.
Planning agreements entered into by Council (or under preparation) can be viewed on Council’s Planning Register.
Contributions relating to development applications must be paid to Council at the time specified in the condition of development consent that imposes the contribution:
The timing specified shall generally be in accordance with the following:
The total monetary contributions detailed in development consent will be adjusted between the date of consent and the date of payment in accordance with Section 4.9 of this Plan.
Should development consent lapse (i.e. development does not commence within the defined commencement period), with or without payment of relevant development contributions, a reassessment of applicable contribution projects will be required at the time of a new development application.
The costs of contributions projects included in this Plan and the monetary contribution rates are exempt from Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Council is not legally obliged to defer contributions payments or take periodic payments; however, deferred or periodic payment of contributions may be permitted in certain circumstances. For further information please refer to Council’s Payment of Development Contributions and Section 64 Headwork Charges by Deferment or Instalments (under special circumstances) Policy.
To assist in the delivery of community infrastructure, this Plan authorises monetary development contributions paid for different contribution projects to be selectively pooled and applied progressively to priority projects within a defined planning area. Funds will be pooled based on project type and planning area, for example, road projects in Planning Area 1 will be pooled to allow the pooled funding to be applied to priority projects to allow them to be undertaken in a timelier manner. This will help to facilitate development that may otherwise be held up awaiting construction of essential infrastructure.
As detailed in Section 4.11 these priorities may be changed through future reviews of the Plan.
The purpose of this clause is to ensure that the monetary contribution rates imposed at the time of development consent or complying development certificate are adjusted to reflect the indexed cost of the provision of infrastructure included in this Plan.
Council may, without the necessity of preparing a new or amending contributions plan, make changes to the monetary contribution rates set out in this Plan to reflect annual changes to the Consumer Price Index.
The contribution rates will be indexed as follows:
$CA X Current CPI
Base CPI
Where:
Note: The contribution rate will not be less than the contribution rate specified at the date of the adoption of this Plan or the rate that is subsequently indexed on 1 July. A list of past contribution rates applied by Council to this Plan is shown in Schedule 5 of this Plan.
An "indexed estimate" appears on all project pages to recognise the revised project estimate amount which has increased over time due to annual indexation.
Failure to adhere to the below information may render a certificate invalid, exposing the accredited certifier to legal action.
In accordance with Section 7.21 of the EP&A Act and clause 136L of the EP&A Regulations, accredited certifiers have the same obligations as Council when issuing certificates and are required to undertake the following:
It is the professional responsibility of the accredited certifier to:
Only conditions requiring monetary contributions can be imposed by accredited certifiers. The only exception to this requirement is where a works-in-kind, material public benefit, dedication of land and/ or deferred payment arrangement has been agreed to by Council, in writing. In such instances, Council will issue a letter confirming that it agrees to the alternative payment method.
Accredited certifiers should refer to Section 3 of this Plan regarding the calculation of development contributions and the online calculator.
The Plan’s assumptions (including its supporting strategies, anticipated development yield and project cost parameters) require monitoring and review on a regular basis.
Monitoring actual developments, population changes and community infrastructure demands will allow appropriate updating and amendment of contribution projects detailed in this Plan. The cost of works proposed by the Plan (including land values) will also need to be reviewed over time in addition to the cost indexing provisions in this Plan. These strategies are to ensure that at any particular time, contribution rates fairly and reasonably reflect development demand for infrastructure addressed by the Plan.
Council’s aim is to undertake minor reviews of this Plan annually and major reviews at four yearly intervals after the date of adoption of this Plan. This timeframe is to link into Council’s integrated reporting cycle and to consider revised population forecasts.
Amendments that have been made to the Contributions Plan can be viewed at Council’s Planning Register.
Inactive projects
Through undertaking a review of this Plan, Council may include some new or inactive contribution projects.
An inactive contribution project is a project for which Council has levied contributions on all of the anticipated development in the contribution project catchment. That is, it is assumed that all contributions relating to inactive projects have been made or will be made. Council shall not levy contributions on development for a contribution project after it has been declared inactive. However, contributions for projects that were imposed on consents that have been declared inactive subsequent to the issue of the consent are still required to be made. Consequently, payment of monetary contributions will still be expected if a project is made inactive after the date of consent but before payment is received.
Making a contribution project inactive in this Plan does not necessarily mean that the infrastructure item is completed. Rather, it is an indication that the contribution project cannot be funded from contributions beyond those already required under existing consents.
In such circumstances, Council may consider substituting an inactive project for works which are more appropriate to meet the identified development demand. This substitution could occur where:
However, should a project be made inactive in this Plan, and the contribution project has been fully funded, any surplus contributions collected or pending payment will be allocated by Council to a similar project that is provided by Council to meet the original development demand in the catchment area.
Council is not obligated under legislation to refund development contributions. However, Council may consider refunding development contribution payments where:
Where development contributions consist of a City-Wide Plan Management Contribution, Council will only be able to provide a partial refund. These costs are associated with the formulation, administration and management of the Plan.
A refund will not be possible when a project has commenced, money has been expended, or the development contribution is for a recoupment project. Where a refund cannot be supported, Council may consider a credit as appropriate to the circumstances.
For further information, please contact Council’s Developer Contributions Coordinator on 4429 3111.