Draft Report - Assessment of Blacktown City Council's Contributions Plan No 24 - Schofields Precinct - July 2023

We have released a Draft Report on our assessment of Contributions Plan No. 24 - Schofields Precinct (2022).

What has the council proposed?

Blacktown City Council proposes to levy a total of almost $324 million in developer contributions to provide the local infrastructure needed to service the Schofields precinct.

Overview of our findings

We found that most of the infrastructure costs in the plan are essential and reasonable.

Our draft recommendations

We have made a draft recommendation that the council remove ‘public art and signage’ costs from the plan. This would reduce open space costs by $1.2 million.

We have also made a draft recommendation that the council can use an appropriately designed and applied land value index to reflect a change in land costs. The land value index should only apply to land not yet purchased.