Leamington's mayor says freezing development charges is working out very well.
Town Council gets an update tonight on its experiment two years ago to get rid of development charges for all builds, with the exception of new greenhouses.
John Paterson admits some categories of the development charge reserve fund are in a deficit position, but overall it's carrying a $3.4-million surplus. And Paterson says he's not worried about those shortfalls, at all.
"The point to remember here is that, yes we are creating a deficit position in the development charges account, but at the same time we're attracting an awful lot, I mean a lot of new build."
Council underwent the experiment in the wake of the Heinz closure and the loss of 700 jobs.
Paterson says he'd do it again, without reservation.
"The results that we've had in the last two years when it comes to new building statistics has been huge; way, way beyond our expectation."
The pilot project is expected to end in August 2017. Paterson says at that time; council will decide whether to continue with it or start to implement development charges again.
