A “fairer” rental rate for road reserve land will see some Wellington homeowners paying more to use the land.
The city council has changed the fee structure for road reserve land meaning rentals will now be set according to land values.
Previously the 6,000 properties in the city with encroachments on road reserve for parking, gardens and access paid the same amount for use of the land regardless of the difference in land values between suburbs.
Cr Andy Foster, who chairs the strategy and policy committee, says the new system will be fairer with some rental rates falling while others will increase.
”At the moment encroachment holders pay the same per square metre whether they are at Makara Beach or Oriental Bay despite massive differences in land value,” Foster says.
He says some people were benefitting from encroachments such as homeowners building garages on road reserve which increased the value of their property.
Others had fenced off public land and were paying nothing for its use.
The council began its review of its road encroachment and sale policy in 2009 and a draft policy was released for public comment last June.
Many of the more than 200 submitters were concerned about what the review might mean for the cost of renting road reserve land and that property owners would have no choice but to accept whatever changes the council decided.
However, the council has taken steps to alleviate large rent increases in those suburbs where land values are the highest. Maximum and minimum rental rates have been applied, the maximum rate $30 per square metre and the minimum set at $5 per square metre.
Cr Foster says the new pricing structure will be consulted on as part of next year’s long term plan and would apply from July 1 2012.  In the meantime the existing fee rates will apply.
The council is to also introduce new charges for people fencing off public land for their own use. Existing licence holders will continue to receive the first 50 square metres of land without incurring rental fees while new and re-issued licences for land that is fenced or hedged will not receive the first 50 square metres of land free.
“This approach recognises that fencing and hedging land creates exclusive use of land, while also recognising the position of those owners who made decisions to fence land based on the existing policy”, Cr Foster says.