Assessment finalised
IPART has completed its assessment of the contributions that Liverpool City Council can levy in the Austral and Leppington North (ALN) precincts.
The council will levy around $1 billion in contributions for infrastructure. The council will use the contributions it collects to fund open space, stormwater management, transport infrastructure and land acquisitions needed to support development in the precinct. We expect that this will result in contribution rates of around $60,000 for a typical home.
Our assessment ensures that people pay the reasonable cost of providing local infrastructure required by new developments in the Austral and Leppington North precincts.
We found most of the infrastructure and costs in the plan are reasonable, and that public consultation has occurred. We consider there is a possibility the council’s costs might turn out to be underestimated, in particular the costs for its stormwater strategy. We recommend the council comprehensively review its stormwater strategy and all costs in the ALN contributions plan within the next 2 years, including the actual costs from implementation of the plan.
We also found the provision of open space in the plan is below the council’s benchmarks, therefore we recommend the council explore options it has suggested to mitigate this shortfall.
Our other findings and recommendations include:
- Any adjustments to the stormwater strategy be made based on the findings of the council’s review
- Following the review of the ALN contributions plan, Liverpool City Council should submit the plan to IPART for assessment within 3 years from the date that this plan becomes an ‘IPART reviewed contributions plan’
Liverpool City Council should amend its ‘monetary contributions rate’ table currently in section 1.2.1 of the ALN contributions plan in line with Table 4.6 in IPART’s final report.