Dear Friends and owners of Unley,

 

How often have you heard: “Everyone agrees with me”?  We live in a world where we are living in our own echo chambers. The Summer News discusses controversial matters that divide us as well as our Council.  I hope you enjoy the attached Summer 2024-5 Newsletter.

Rates

I went on ABC radio to discuss our Council’s decision to go to public consultation on our policy to have a financial incentive for new developments that increase the built form to achieve 15% tree canopy cover. The incentive is a 10% rate increase until the 15% is achieved. No owner of an existing property will ever pay higher rates for a lack of trees.

 I was asked; “Is Unley discouraging the development of new housing by applying a 10% rate incentive to achieve a 15% minimum tree canopy?”

Unley has been lowering our rates against CPI over the past five years by 6.72%. I postulated that Unley was a great place to do business because of our rate, even for those new developments without 15% tree canopy paying the 10% higher rate, we would be competitive.

The result: We are.

Unley was found to have a lower minimum residential rate in the dollar than all surrounding council areas.

Simply put, the Tree Offset Scheme does not make it more expensive to purchase a high-rise apartment in Unley, in fact, even with the extra 10% charge incurred, rates are still lower than the average of all surrounding council areas.

Comparison of Unley residential rate and average rate of surrounding council areas

From this, it was concluded that the rates payable on a new property in Unley which does not have 15% tree canopy cover (therefore incurred the extra 10% charge), were still comparatively cheaper than rates would be in surrounding council areas without the extra 10% charge.

These figures present a strong argument that it is not unreasonable to include all high-rise buildings and apartments in Unley’s Tree Offset Scheme proposal. Our Unley Central development will have >15% tree canopy, so rates will be more than 10% lower than the average of surrounding councils.

With my best wishes,

                          Michael

Mayor Michael Hewitson AM