Coffs Harbour’s draft plan recommends a $13,461 sewerage developer charge per equivalent tenement, up about 3.5 per cent, with no cross-subsidy payable by existing customers

The short answer. If you already live in a home connected to the City’s sewers, this is generally not a charge on you. Asked whether existing residents will have to pay it, the City answers Generally, no. It applies, the City says, to eligible new development, redevelopment or changes of land use that increase demand on the sewerage system. If you are subdividing, building units or opening a business that adds load to the sewers, it is part of your cost. So is connecting land with an existing house for the first time, if the charges were never paid. The draft would set it at $13,461 for each equivalent tenement (ET), one ET being the demand of a standard detached house. The draft is a proposal: the council has endorsed it only for exhibition, and a further report will come back to the council after submissions close.

The charge per equivalent tenement

Now, under the 2019 plan

$13,006, the current adopted rate in the council report. The plan behind it calculated the charge at $9,804 in 2009/10 dollars and, after a council resolution of 11 March 2010 to levy less, set $8,309. Its charges are indexed quarterly to the Sydney consumer price index.

Proposed, in the 2026 draft

$13,461, the full calculated maximum. Up $455, which the report calls approximately 3.5 per cent. One charge for everywhere the City’s sewers reach: Coffs Harbour, Moonee and Woolgoolga, including Corindi.

How the $13,461 is built

The method comes from the NSW Government’s 2016 developer charges guidelines, and the draft sets it out in one line: the developer charge equals the capital charge, the cost of providing the assets, less a reduction amount, the cost the City expects to recover through the new customers’ annual bills. The capital charge counts existing assets that serve growth as well as the next ten years of works, divided by the present value of the new ETs the City forecasts, and includes a commercial return because the City funds the works up front. The reduction amount is the present value of 30 years of the net income the new customers are expected to bring in, at $595 per ET a year in the draft’s 2026 figures: $1,058 of income less $463 of operating, maintenance and administration cost.

The draft’s sum, per equivalent tenement, 2026 dollars

Capital chargeExisting and future assets, with a commercial return$20,118

Less reduction amountRecovered through 30 years of the new customers’ bills$6,657

Developer chargeCalculated maximum, and the charge proposed$13,461

The draft then makes the choice the guidelines leave open. A water utility may cap developer charges below the calculated figure for affordability, and the draft says the City may weigh financial, social and environmental factors. It does not cap. CCH will apply the maximum developer charge with no cross-subsidy payable by existing customers.

What it pays for

The draft forecasts the sewered area growing from about 34,570 ETs in 2024/25 to about 67,634 by 2055/56, close to double (our arithmetic). Its ten-year works list is where the money goes, and it is large. The Coffs Harbour Water Reclamation Plant, which takes sewage from Sapphire Beach and Korora south to Toormina and Sawtell, has a capacity of 72,000 equivalent persons; Woolgoolga’s at 18,000 and Moonee’s at 7,000. Treated water not reused for irrigation goes to the ocean through the deep sea release. The draft’s major works include duplicating that release, and it says a central biosolids facility is to be built to manage sludge from all three plants.

The draft’s ten-year works list, 2026 to 2036

2026 dollars, grouped by us from the draft’s project list. Total about $721.0 million.

Works	Cost
Coffs Harbour sewerage collection system	$340.6m
Deep sea release duplication, three entries of $40 million	$120.0m
Coffs Harbour plant: inlet works, treatment process upsize, sludge, filtration and UV, RO plant, stormwater storage and smaller items	$83.3m
Woolgoolga plant, including an additional SBR at $36 million	$65.1m
Woolgoolga sewerage collection system	$47.8m
Biosolids thermal treatment	$46.0m
Moonee plant	$17.3m
Moonee sewerage collection system	$0.9m

Two lines in the draft mark the edges of the charge. Works to improve levels of service for existing customers are not included in the DSP. And the pipes inside a subdivision stay the developer’s own cost, on top of the charge, along with the connection to the City’s mains. The council report lists three minor non-compliances an independent audit found, all addressed in the draft; one was that the calculation had counted assets planned beyond ten years, and those costs were removed.

What changes from the 2010 choice

The plan in force is called the Wastewater Development Servicing Plan 2019, but its numbers are older. Its 2019 amendments added two incentive policies to its exclusions; the charge in it was calculated in 2009/10 dollars, and on 11 March 2010 the council resolved to levy less than that calculation. The plan was frank about who covered the gap: Adopting the lower charges will result in some cross-subsidy from existing customers to new development. It put that at $23 a year for each residential wastewater customer, and $21 million over 30 years.

The plan in force against the draft

Wastewater DSP 2019

Calculated $9,804, set at $8,309 per ET (2009/10 dollars). Cross-subsidy from existing customers, $23 a year each. Capital works of $128.2 million over 30 years, in that plan’s dollars. To be reviewed at not greater than 5-yearly intervals. Four catchments, Corindi separate.

Draft, June 2026

Calculated and proposed $13,461 per ET (2026 dollars). No cross-subsidy payable by existing customers. A ten-year works list of about $721.0 million in 2026 dollars. To be reviewed within 4 to 8 years. One service area, Corindi now served by the Woolgoolga plant.

The council report is blunt about the old plan: The current Wastewater Services Development Servicing Plan 2019 is outdated. And it calls the result of replacing it small: The proposed increase in the Section 64 sewerage developer charge is modest and reflects updated infrastructure costs and growth assumptions.

Who decides, and when

From the 2010 discount to a decision

1. 11 Mar 2010Council resolves to levy a wastewater developer charge lower than the calculated value.
2. 14 Nov 2019Latest amendment to the plan in force, adding the Business Incentive Policy to its exclusions.
3. 9 Mar 2026Hydrosphere Consulting’s first draft for the City’s review.
4. 1 Jun 2026Revision 2, minor edits following the independent audit.
5. 20 Aug 2026Council endorses the draft for exhibition of at least 30 working days, resolution R-22-8/2026, seven councillors for and none against.
6. 2 Sep 2026Exhibition opens.
7. Thu 15 OctSubmissions close.
8. No dateA further report to Council on the submissions, seeking adoption of the final plan and the charge.

Endorsing the draft did not change what anyone pays now. The report says so directly: Endorsing the draft DSP for public exhibition does not of itself amend the City's adopted fees and charges. Submissions go through the form on the project page, by email to coffs.council@chcc.nsw.gov.au, or by post to Locked Bag 155, Coffs Harbour NSW 2450.

Our view

Charging growth the full calculated cost of the sewers it needs, rather than asking existing customers to top it up, is the right principle, and it is the honest version of the 2010 plan, which said plainly that the discount came out of existing customers’ bills. The $455 rise is modest, as the City says, but it rests on a forecast that close to doubles the connected load by 2055/56. If growth comes slower than forecast, the same assets are shared by fewer new ETs than the charge assumes; the draft is only as good as that forecast, and its FAQs say a review can come sooner than the 4 to 8 years if growth projections change significantly.

Three things are worth asking in a submission. First, the plan in force exempts granny flats (secondary dwellings under the affordable rental housing policy), and it lets the first lot of a residential subdivision, or the first dwelling on a lot, go without the charge. As at 9 October we did not find either provision in the draft’s searchable text; its tables of ET figures are images, and it says the City may also apply other exemptions for developer charges. Anyone planning a granny flat or a two-lot subdivision should ask how the new plan treats them. Second, the calculation models behind the charge are, in the draft’s words, available on request, not published with it. Third, $120 million for duplicating the deep sea release is the largest named project in the list; a ratepayer is entitled to see how much of it the draft treats as growth and how much as renewal.

We will read the report that brings the final plan back to the council and set out what changed after exhibition and the charge it adopts.