Well the development application arrived in the mail last week. There was one surprise however. The council have concluded that the development has 6 bedrooms. This is 2 more than what is allowed under normal dual occupancy properties. What this means is that the council can now levy charges under what they call a Section 94 Contribution.

The section 94 contributions are:

Water Charges - $5,356
Sewer Charges - $4,070
Public Reserve - $2,180
Recreation facilities - $288

A total of $11,894

Now these are fees that I had not anticipated. I spoke to the council and they confirmed that they are standard contributions based on bedroom counts. They have counted the home office as a “probable” bedroom, which I do not think is all that fair.

I intend to appeal this decision and take up the Mayors offer of help to get this resolved. I can save about half of this by having the bedroom count pulled back to 5 which it really is.

But to get things moving I am going to have to shell out the cash and hope for a successful appeal.

Here is a copy of the Development application. Check out the last page which relates to the section 94 contributions.

Imlay Street Development Application Consent.