A substitute plan for ratepayers to help fund a new stadium at Okara Park is now on the paddock - less than a year after a similar scheme was kicked into touch.
The Northland Regional Council wants to take a $13 million stake in a $39.3 million events centre the Northland Rugby Union is planning for Okara Park.
To fund its stake, the council is proposing a "regional recreational facilities rate". This is the second time the council has looked at getting ratepayers to fund such a centre.
Last year it sought backing for a $23.6 million contribution to an events centre proposal but backed down in the face of concern about the impact on rates.
This latest rate, if approved, would see ratepayers in the Kaipara and Far North pay $5.63 annually towards the cost of the centre - roughly one-fifth of the $27 they would have paid under last year's proposal.
Whangarei ratepayers would pay $33.75 annually towards the centre for the next three years while the facility is built and established. That would then drop to $28.13, just over half the amount proposed last year.
Regional council chairman Mark Farnsworth said partially funding the events centre would account for the bulk of the new rate. As part of that rate, the regional council would also levy an extra $5.63 annual charge on each property across the region, netting about $390,000 a year.
Mr Farnsworth said that money would be set aside to identify and develop other recreational facilities throughout Northland.
One of the concerns from ratepayers with last year's proposal was that rugby would get most of the benefit, while other codes would miss out. Last year the Whangarei District Council gave the rugby union the stadium lease for $1 a year for the next 35 years. The district council will also pay $2.5m over the next two years toward a stadium revamp.
Mr Farnsworth said rugby would undoubtedly be the principal user of the stadium.
"Here's a funding package we are prepared to put up to facilitate the building - with conditions."
The first condition would be that the stadium be run by a trust filled with "the best people for the job".
Mr Farnsworth said the rate was not a done deal and people would have their say on the plan. He hoped this proposal was more palatable to ratepayers.
"This is the last time, in my view, that the Northland Regional Council will look at this matter."
Mr Farnsworth hopes the stadium would help attract national and international events and aid Northland's chances of hosting a game for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Whangarei Mayor Pamela Peters said the two councils had worked productively together to come up with a new plan. "I have confidence in the future of this project and that we are finding ways to ensure investment in this modern facility and keep Northland on the major event calendar," Mrs Peters said.
On top of the $2.5 million the district council is giving to the rugby union, it proposes transferring $1.5 million of expenditure planned for Forum North in its Long Term Council Community Plan. The extra funding would give the centre a multi-use capacity, including a conference centre.
Regional councillors will hold a special meeting within the next fortnight at which the council's Draft Long Term Council Community Plan - including the events centre funding proposal - will be formally adopted. The public will then have four weeks to comment. The council will next month send a summary of its plan - complete with submission form - to every home in Northland.
* Stadium an `unpleasant' jolt
An artist's impression of the stadium the Northland Rugby Union wants to build at Okara Park.
The spectre of a Whangarei-based events centre moved closer to reality this week, to the surprise and disappointment of the Kaipara district general manager and Whangarei Greypower.
Kaipara District Council general manager Jack McKerchar said he was surprised with the latest proposal for a regional rate to fund a Whangarei-based events centre - especially as only on Monday he was told by Northland Regional Council chairman Mark Farnsworth the idea was a "dead issue."
Then on Wednesday the regional council voted to put up a "regional recreational facilities rate" to partly fund plans for a $39.3 million stadium planned for Okara Park. Mr Farnsworth admitted that he told Mr McKerchar and Kaipara Mayor Peter King on Monday that he thought a regional rate was a dead issue. "But you can't pre-empt your councillors and they made a different decision," Mr Farnsworth said.
However, Mr McKerchar does not believe Kaipara ratepayers will back the plan. "The (Kaipara) council's view is that the people of Kaipara shouldn't be asked to pay for it," he said. "I'm sure that is going to be the view (of ratepayers)." But Mr Farnsworth said 56 percent of Kaipara respondents backed plans for ratepayers to fund the stadium during consultation last year. Whangarei Greypower spoke out strongly against last year's scrapped proposal.
President Brian Highland said yesterday his organisation knew nothing of the regional council's latest proposal and could not comment until it had been scrutinised. "However, if it's any more burden on superannuitants, particularly those on single benefits or with a disability, then increases in local government rates for any purpose would be treated with dismay," he said.
Rates may rise for new stadium
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