Mayor defies minister over zoning system

new zoning system as it emerged the new system will greatly affect those speculatively holding onto massive tracts of land and not individual households in low and high density areas.
Although Mr Masunda’s actions might be interpreted as a snub of Government’s directive that council reverts to the land and improvements criteria when charging residential rates, close council sources argue that ordinary city residents would not be affected.
There are many people who have held onto land for speculative purposes and have not carried any developments. It is such people who will greatly feel the impact of the zoning system.
Since January this year, the residents were billed using the new zoning system after council switched its residential rating system from one charging separate rates for land and improvements, to one of rates on the land only.
Council said the switch was done in terms of the Urban Councils Act Chapter 252 and was legal.
Mr Masunda, yesterday acknowledged a directive from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development to revert to the land and improvements system, but said his council would defy it.
Minister Chombo could not be reached on his phone yesterday.
Mr Masunda said the Government directive came through the office of the town clerk, Dr Tendai Mahachi.
Mr Masunda, however, insisted that residents would be rated using the zoning system until the dispute between council and the ministry was resolved.
“We want the residents to pay as they have been doing since the beginning of the year as we deal with this confusion. It is clear from where I sit that a directive must have come from the ministry to (Dr) Tendai Mahachi. It was Tendai Mahachi who said let us review the situation,” Mr Masunda said.
Asked under which criteria then residents should pay their rates, he said: “I have been given a position by the city treasurer and his team and I support them. That position is in full compliance with the Urban Councils Act and all we are doing is abiding by the law.”
The city’s treasury department is behind the zoning system.
Mr Masunda said the rationale behind the zoning system was to force holders of large tracks of land to either develop it or release the land to residents who do not have.
He said in directing council to revert to the land and improvements rating system, someone in the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development “was playing to the gallery”.
Under the new system, land rates are set in zones covering blocks of suburbs. Each standard plot, empty or built on, in each zone is charged the same rate.
Owners of vacant plots will pay a lot more than they were paying before the introduction of the zoning system.
Under the new zoning system, council expects to collect around US$12 million a month now, up from the present US$8 million in residential rates and almost all that extra money will come from owners of vacant land and from land speculators.
The zoning system does not affect commercial and industrial properties.
Under the zoning system, the standard stand size is equivalent to a unit. Property tax is prepared per each unit.
In Borrowdale, the average tax is US$26 per unit and if one is staying on 12,5 acres, one pays US$325.
Depending on stand size and zone, some residents in Borrowdale and low-density suburbs could pay over US$4 000 every month in rates.
Some city residents, who spoke to the Herald yesterday, concurred that the new zoning system had shown zero increases or some marginal increases of about US$1 per month.