DERM do the valuations and designate each property into a category eg Rural Agricultural - grazing, RA - Diary, RA - Pineapples, RA - Strawberries, Residential, Rural Residential, Commercial, Rural - Lifestyle etc. ...
Council then place these designations into our categories for rating purposes. There are about 1400 plus properties that were designated as Rural Agricultural - (farming - assorted categories) previously however are now designated as Rural - Lifestyle or something similar.
Council has a category called residential - which is any size property (300 m2 to 150 - 225 acres or above) for the primary use as a single dwelling where the owner is the occupier.
This is where residential, rural residential and others fit into, including those properties that aren't farming or rural production.
For those rural properties that are on the minimum general rate (approx 180) it means they will be cheaper by about 200 dollars, it means there will be about 400 properties that will be approximately the same and 800 (give or take a few) will receive an increase up to 6 per cent (but the average should be around 3.26 per cent).
There are some advantages to being in the residential - last year the rural cap was 20 per cent however residential this year is 6 per cent cap, going into the future Councils are traditionally easier on residential properties than perceived income producing properties.
Residential1's don't mean town water - this is now under Unitywater and paid for separately (and always has been) the same with sewerage.
Rubbish removal is also a charge that is done separately - all properties pay the equivalent to the rural waste levy to run tips, education programs etc and those with rubbish pickup pay more over and above this for the pick up.
The change in category has no effect on local laws (you can still keep the same amount of animals etc) and has no effect on the regional plan (you still can't subdivide exactly the same as the week before you received your rates notice).
If people feel it necessary to want to change back to Rural Agricultural - (rural production), DERM should be approached and they have certain criteria that need to meet which includes income derived, improvements to the land etc.
I hope this helps, if you have further queries feel free to give me a call.
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