The property industry has criticised City of Newcastle's push to more than double developer contributions in the city's western corridor.
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Councillors voted on Tuesday to place on public exhibition a contributions plan for housing developments at Minmi and Fletcher which would raise the contributions from $13,646.75 to $30,274.30 per block.
The council also voted to ask the Planning Minister to increase a $20,000 cap on contributions to $30,000. The government introduced the cap in 2012 to stimulate development and improve housing affordability.
The contributions would pay for $92 million in road and community infrastructure projects to support the addition of 3132 homes in the western corridor.
The new policy would replace a 2014 contributions plan which identified $37.95 million in required infrastructure spending for the same number of dwellings.
The chairman of the Hunter chapter of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Geoff Rock, said the council's move to more than double the contributions was a "surprise" in light of the 2014 plan.
"The fact it could more than double overnight is a concern," he said.
A report to councillors on Tuesday said the forecast roads budget had increased from $2.9 million to $34 million after a consultant found this year that the road network needed "significant upgrades to support growth".
Projected "social infrastructure" spending had grown from $34 million to $58 million after updated project costs and "inclusion of a baseball facility, enclosed dog exercise area, a district-level playground ... and a co-located library within the proposed multi-purpose community facility".
Mr Rock said the increased costs "begs the question how did they get the planning so wrong".
The UDIA would make a "robust, evidence-based" submission during the public exhibition period for the contributions plan.
He said developers would not absorb the increase in costs but would pass them on to land buyers.
Lake Macquarie City Council charges a $24,000 developer contribution on land adjoining Newcastle council's western corridor and $27,337 in some other "urban release areas".
The Lake contributions are capped at $30,000 in urban release areas and $20,000 in others.
The NSW government also charges subdivision developers a special infrastructure contribution of $10,000 in many parts of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas.
The regional director of Property Council of Australia, Anita Hugo, said increasing contributions would affect housing affordability, the feasibility of housing estates and the Hunter's investment outlook.
"The key problem is the cumulative impact of the taxes and charges on housing in NSW and the fact that there is no oversight process as to what is charged or where," she said.
"The community and industry should have greater transparency on what infrastructure is being delivered from contributions across NSW.