OPINION: Council should fight developers
DEITY knows I'm no fan of most of the current crop of councillors, but the poor sods are on a hiding to nothing over these sorts of issues.
Conditions are imposed on developments for a variety of reasons ranging across health, environment, safety and amenity grounds.
Some of these are based on legislation and some on community requirements.
If councils don't require developers to pay for things that the community expects with a development, then the time will come when the community will demand those things be put in place.
Guess who has to pay then?
The council (read ratepayers) AND the council will be abused for not making the developer pay in the first instance.
A developer can (and they often do) challenge a swag of conditions.
That's their right, as they want to maximize the dollars made from the development.
They shouldn't achieve that though at the cost of a poorer quality development from a community viewpoint.
Sometimes you have to fight for what's right for the community with regard to a development and sadly that comes at a cost.
- Sean_Hegarty,
Warwick
