Lake Okeraka Develop Gold Clam Plan
September 26, 2026
30 September 2026
LRCA Seeks Fair Rating Treatment From RLC
LRCA has submitted a formal request of Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) to undertake a review of the benefit and service disparity between urban and rural (including lakes) residential ratepayers with a view to reinstating a general rate differential for rural residents.
Since 2018, Rotorua Lakes Council has charged every residential property the same general rate, whether it is urban or rural, most of which are 30-90km from town with far less infrastructure, fewer services and amenities, and no public transport. Rural properties carry capital values 65-85% higher on average than urban, primarily due in our case to lake amenity, not because of service parity. A rural residential differential operated for 40 years, albeit diminishing over time, up until 2018. Council removed it on the assertion that rural and urban ratepayers receive ‘the same or equal services’, which its own LTP consultation document described as debatable.
The submission is supported by the Local Government Commission's independent recognition of the lakes as a distinct, isolated and under-served community, and by Council's own findings from the 1990’s and 2000’s that an undifferentiated system is unworkable in Rotorua. It also argues that rural lakes ratepayers already carry a disproportionate share of sewerage capital costs which do not offset the case for a differential.