Re: Editorial: In This Together (Dec. 6).

For weeks now the Gazette has been spouting an “All we Need is Growth” message, that seems to align closely with the County staff view.  “Let’s just go ahead and build it and they will come” seems to be the  mantra, and not just a trickle but a tidal wave.

I suspect that leaves the Gazette unaligned with most of its readers, the County out of step with PEC residents, and both ignoring the recent Watson report that predicted the sort of slow and steady growth that seems more in tune with reality.  Yes, most of us do accept that there should be some planned growth, but I have yet to meet anyone here who wants to see the tsunami-like growth picture that the County seems to be banking on to pay for its $100 million-and-that’s-just-for-starters infrastructure program. Is this really our shared vision for the County? No, I don’t think so.

Even that initial $100 million figure now seems far-fetched given that the initial spending on the tower and the holding tank is way over budget and tenders for the Wellington trunk lines are more than double the original forecast. Further down the road, if the end game is to dig up the Millennium Trail (one of the County’s jewels) and supply water all the way into Picton, then the costs for that have yet to be projected but are certain to be eye-watering.

Still, says the Gazette, not to worry, the developers will pay for most of this. But will they? So far Kaitlin Homes, at present the only potential builder in Wellington, has put up a letter of credit for $4 million, and here the Gazette is right, that’s not even enough to pay the interest costs on our loans. They assure us that they will proceed with construction once the trunk lines are in, but, realistically, they will only build if they believe the market is ready. In crude terms this all looks like a “show me yours and I will think about showing you mine” scenario, hardly the foundation for a good relationship.

Meanwhile, Base31 has stated they are willing to pay their “fair share”, whatever they deem that to be, but at present there is no development charge bylaw in place in Picton. And any commercial development that results from all this new housing and that might help to pay for this infrastructure is way off in the future.

All of this is being portrayed as Wellington residents not wanting to pay, but the reality is that if this, by far the largest capital project PEC has ever undertaken, goes off the rails, then all ratepayers will suffer in equal measure, Picton, Bloomfield and everywhere the water lines run. This is why many of us have been fighting to get Council to pause and reassess our real needs, and particularly in the light of current less favourable economic, demographic and market conditions.

Kevin Hanbury,  Wellington