Development contributions, which some developers say are hindering economic growth, are to be investigated by the Waitaki District Council.
A special committee will look at the charges levied on developers for increasing the demand on infrastructure such as water supplies, roads and wastewater-disposal schemes.
The charges put some of the cost of upgrading infrastructure on to developers.
Since the charges were introduced in 2004, the council has collected almost $3.5 million, which would have had to come from rates paid by existing ratepayers.
The council's strategy group manager, Richard Mabon, said some developers had expressed concern about the contributions but in 95% of the cases there was no complaint.
The other 5% related to anomalies in the policy and were dealt with by developers appealing to the council to have the contribution reduced.
While not a full review of the policy behind the contributions, Mr Mabon said there were a range of options and some scope for smaller changes that would enable a faster response by council when there were concerns.
If the contributions were not charged, that would add 4% to the rates for the next decade - about $1 million a year.
This could be contentious as existing ratepayers would have to fund the shortfall.
While some developers said the contributions discouraged development in the district, Mr Mabon said the evidence was not convincing that the charges were too high.
The council was "well down the list" in the contributions collected by some other councils.
However, some councils, such as Timaru and Invercargill, did not charge development contributions.
An example of a development contribution would be that paid by a developer of a subdivision for the demand created by new sections on water and sewerage systems.
Another was the development of a dairy farm which could be liable for a contribution to the demand on roads.
The committee which will review the contributions is made up of the chairmen of the assets committee, Alistair Mavor; corporate services committee, Peter Twiss; strategy committee, Cr Struan Munro; and Crs Peter Garvan and Kathy Dennison. Cr Twiss is chairman.
