MAYOR Peter Cox has said he understood the shock eight households would have felt when they were told they may be asked to contribute tens of thousands of dollars toward drainage upgrades this week. 

But Cr Cox moved to reassure the Strathfieldsaye homeowners that they would not be paying upfront, even if his colleagues decided to endorse the scheme. 

“I can understand it’s been a bit of a shock to people because they’re not thinking of selling or redeveloping and yet now they’ve got this potential – because there has been no decision made at this point – this potential that at some point in time they might have to contribute towards this drainage,” Cr Cox said. 

Eight families and two developers were told what they could be asked to contribute toward the Guys Hill Road underground storm water drainage system on Monday night, with estimates ranging from $14,953 to $136,621.

The need for drainage upgrades arose after the catchment area was rezoned to Residential 1 in 2011 –  but the first residents learnt about it was at a meeting in late August. Two subdivisions have since been approved, despite it not having sufficient drainage infrastructure in place.

“It is a difficult question because, obviously, some people want to develop their properties sooner and others are quite happy as they are,” Cr Cox said. 

“But the issue is that we’ve got to develop a drainage project for the whole area, not just for the two subdivision that will go ahead sooner rather than later, and I guess the question for council is: do we go ahead with those two subdivision and put a substandard drainage system that will have to be pulled out in years to come?

“Or do we build a drainage system that will be able to cope with all the run-off that will occur when all the other blocks are developed over the next five, 10, 20 or 30 years?”

The proposed special charge scheme which the city took to the eight affected households in their first meeting on August 24 proposed council pay an estimated $94,000 toward the drainage works, the two developers pay approximately $168,000 and the remaining costs – an estimated $288,000 – be divided among residents according to land area.

However, the city would cover the resident’s costs until such time as they sold or subdivided their land. 

Councillors discussed the issue when they met Wednesday night based on feedback from the two resident meetings.

“We are still very much in discussion and consultation phase and council will need to undertake further consultation with the residents,” Cr Cox said.

The mayor said he anticipated the issue would be dealt with in October. 

“We are just giving hopefully enough time so as people can think through the issues and get as much information as possible – but, in the end, it will be the councillors who make the decision on what happens or what doesn’t happen,” he said.