Clarity brought to Council’s residential rating categories

Residential rating category definitions are expected to change when the 2011/12 Southern Downs Regional Council budget is adopted.
Previously, there were two residential categories – urban residential and rural residential.
“After introduction of the region-wide differential rating system last financial year, the council found that there was a lack of clear definition between urban residential and rural residential blocks,” chief executive officer Rod Ferguson said.
“So this year we’ve attempted to finetune residential categories to better define what is an urban property and what is not,” Mr Ferguson said.
“With advice from the Ratings Consultation Group, under the proposed new definitions, there will simply be four residential categories defined by water service connections and land size,” he said.
“It’s based on the premise that an urban block consumes more services than a rural block.”
Where the dominant land usage is residential, properties will be rated in the following four categories:
Residential 1 – properties that are required to pay water access charges and are less than or equal to 4047m2 in size;
Residential 2 – properties that are required to pay water access charges and are greater than 4047m2 in size;
Residential 3 – properties that are not required to pay water access charges and are less than or equal to 4.4Ha in size;
Residential 4 – properties that are not required to pay water access charges and are greater than 4.4Ha in size.
These category changes are proposed to be adopted region-wide, but will not be confirmed until the budget is adopted by the council later this month. Minimum general rates and the rate in the dollar for each category have not yet been decided.