Infrastructure costs are a significant contributor to the expense of creating developments on the urban fringe.
Infrastructure costs are a significant contributor to the expense of creating developments on the urban fringe.
The State Government’s current policy is that, if developments ‘leapfrog’ the existing urban boun-daries, developers are responsible for implementing infrastructure.
Many developers currently make voluntary contributions, but City of Wanneroo Deputy Mayor Sam Salpietro told the WA Business News forum contributions were often difficult to manage at a local government level.
“Some developers provide a voluntary contribution, and we had a classic case where a developer gave us an oval which was a sandpit, and we had to grass it and put irrigation in, and we basically had to spend $350,000,” Mr Salpietro said.
“As soon as areas are built we have to spend $1 million to $1.5 million on a community centre, a library, change rooms; all this is the ratepayers’ contribution and it is sometimes a little bit unfair that these services aren’t also included in these levies.”
Urban Development Institute of Australia WA executive director Marion Fulker said the Government did not necessarily synergise infrastructure planning with land availability.
“At a strategic level the Government has its metropolitan development plan, in which the development industry is a stakeholder in providing information for,” Ms Fulker said.
“It provides a framework for how development will roll-out, parti-cularly in relation to zonings, but they don’t use it as their template for infrastructure provision.”
Satterley Property Group managing director and chief executive Nigel Satterley said developers understood the need to contribute to infrastructure for land on the fringes.
“If you want to have farm land rezoned to urban land, you have to contribute to the infrastructure. A lot of the other major infrastructure like schools, hospitals, major highways … I think the Government should be planning to the future,” he said.
