1% - Waikato District Council

14NAVIGATING THE FUTURE | WAIKATO DISTRICT COUNCILScanningthe horizonBackground to the planWaikato district has a large area, and few people, with most ofus getting on with our own day-to-day issues and viewing widerissues as someone else’s concern.However, the global financial crisis has had a direct effect onNew Zealand and the Waikato. Jobs have been lost, incomeshave dropped and business opportunities reduced. As acommunity, we need to deal with these immediate challengesas well as take a longer term view.This plan highlights the immediate and long-term challengesthe council has to meet and solve. You’ve consistently told usyou can’t absorb big rates increases. We also know we haveto provide for growth over the long term, now. This meansspending up front to provide the facilities and infrastructureneeded for that growth.How we fund that is a hard decision – increase rates now tofund the projects we need? Or, borrow, with future generationspaying for both the capital cost of the projects as well as theiroperation and maintenance costs.Our district is anticipating growth in particular areas – Pokeno,Te Kauwhata, Tamahere, Tuakau, and also industrial growth atHorotiu, where we expect residential growth to be limited toin-fill. As a result, each of these areas need new infrastructure.We have to upgrade other infrastructure if we are going tomeet the standards you expect (see the Groups of Activitiesfrom page 47 for details).These and other issues, such as government legislated change,impose costs on the council that have to be funded. But, thereality is we can only do what is affordable and sustainable.More details about this can be found further on in this plan,in particular in the Financial Pathway section on pages 29-45.And while we have to balance present-day expectations withfunding and providing for the future, we also work within thewider national, regional and sub-regional context described onthe following pages 14-17, which has a direct impact on ourdistrict.Regional influence creating localopportunitiesCentral government policies and legislation have had an impacton our district; particularly with Auckland’s local governmentrestructure resulting in part of Franklin now included inWaikato district.The Auckland Plan and related Economic DevelopmentStrategy both affect our district. For instance, Auckland Councilproposes a compact city with higher-density living in the existingbuilt-up area to cope with the Auckland region’s expectedpopulation increase.This is likely to be an incentive for those wanting a differentlifestyle to move south, where it’s more affordable – Auckland’sranked in the top 20 of the world’s most expensive cities to liveand housing is unaffordable for many.According to Statistics New Zealand, 63 per cent of Waikatodistrict’s working residents go outside our district for theirjobs. Equally, Auckland’s Draft Economic Development Strategyaims to increase business investment in that city. The WaikatoExpressway will also bring change for the region.These will all impact on our district, providing both challengeand opportunity. We want to help create opportunities formore local jobs that contribute directly to the local economy.This will also help prevent our towns becoming ‘commuter’towns. Therefore, attracting industry and business to the districtis important, and will be part of our own new EconomicDevelopment Strategy.Future ProofFuture Proof is our plan for future urban and rural land use,transport, natural and cultural resources, roads and essentialinfrastructure. It’s important we have our plans in place now,because we estimate there will be almost 500,000 people livingin Hamilton and the surrounding Waikato and Waipa districtsby 2061.Future Proof is a growth strategy specific to the Hamilton,Waipa, and Waikato sub-region and has been developed jointlyby Hamilton City Council, Waikato Regional Council, andWaipa and Waikato District Councils. Other key organisationsand groups involved in the project include Tangata Whenua,New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and Matamata-PiakoDistrict Council.