Consultation on the 2024-34 Long-term Plan opens on 12 April and closes on 12 May. It is a key opportunity for Wellingtonians to have their say on the city’s 10-year plan and budget.
Major consultation items will be:
- Three-waters investment options, with a recommended option to provide $1.8 billion to Wellington Water for investment in three waters.
- Waste collection services – including options to introduce wheelie bins and organics collection, funded by a new targeted rate for waste (a flat fee for all households that can receive the service).
- Options for establishing a Perpetual Investment Fund by selling City Council ground leases and the Council’s shares in Wellington Airport, to address natural disaster and insurance risks.
The draft Long-term Plan will include changes to the capital programme, to allow as much investment as possible in three waters within Council financial parameters. This includes:
- Delaying starting construction of Kilbirnie Skate Park from 2024/25 to 2025/26.
- Closing Khandallah Pool and landscaping the site to restore the stream channel, improve flooding mitigation and create a new entranceway into Khandallah Park.
-Not progressing the Hutt Road portion of the Thorndon Quay/Hutt Road transport improvements (part of the former Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme). The Aotea Quay roundabout and Thorndon Quay portions would continue.
- Rephasing work on the Golden Mile to deliver the Courtenay Place improvements first, and delay the Lambton Quay, Manners and Willis Street work.
I could be wrong but my understanding is that a ground lease is a situation where you own some land and rent it out to someone else to develop, typically for a long-term duration (like decades). In this case it could be that the council is currently leasing land that it owns, but will be looking to instead sell that land permanently
I couldn't find a list of what ground leases the council currently has, but it looks like they typically are things like sports clubrooms, community halls, hobby groups etc:
Examples: Proposed new leases and licence on recreation reserve and Wellington Town Belt Land, outlines proposals to establish leases to Capital BMX Club Incorporated, Wellington Beekeepers Association Incorporated, and Port Nicholson & Poneke Cycling Club Incorporated
These are all leased extremely cheaply ($1 per year for 100m² for the Beekeepers club as an example) presumably because they are community focused and non-commercial.
I'd be worried that this option would amount to selling off community spaces to commercial developers (though it could be that the council has other leases that are already commercially developed that it's simply seeking to sell off to the existing tenants)