The Canberra Raiders are expected to seek a potential $3.6 million tax break on the club's proposed $46 million Braddon apartment complex.
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But Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said he is not inclined to support a waiver on the Raiders development proposal, even if it is formally lodged.
Such waivers have been a sore point for the territory government since Mr Barr gave the Brumbies rugby union club 'in-principle' support for a waiver of a $7.5 million 'change of use' charge in 2012.
The club last week submitted its latest development application for its block on Donaldson and Torrens streets in Braddon, for 140 new dwellings across 11 separate buildings on the site, works expected to cost some $46.9 million.
To make way for the development, if approved, the club's lease on the land would need to be changed to allow residential and non-residential commercial uses on the land.
That change would attract what would be a multi-million dollar lease variation charge (LVC), to change the use of the land, that the club would need to pay the government.
Planning documents lodged with the ACT's Planning and Land Authority show Knight Frank in June this year valued the land at $7.7 million before the development and $12.5 million afterwards.
Under the authority's LVC calculation formula for changes under section 277 of the Planning and Development Act, the Raiders would likely face a $3.6 million charge if the development was approved.
Canberra Raiders chief executive Simon Hawkins said the club will consider applying for a waiver of the charge, but it has not made a final decision yet, given the official amount had not been decided.
ACT Chief Planner Ben Ponton said the authority's records showed no LVC remissions had been sought for the development to date.
But he said the club had asked Mr Barr, as Treasurer, for his "in-principle agreement to waive the LVC once the amount has been determined".
He said the valuation process would not be finished until the development application was 'finalised', but that the charge would need to reflect "any increase in value to the site as a result of adding the uses".
A spokesman for Mr Barr said he would consider any request from the club, but was "unlikely to support it".
He said the charge played an important role in giving the Canberra community "a share of the benefit of windfall gains made by developers when leases are varied" and that waivers were "the exception, not the rule".
"If a significant community benefit can be delivered as the result of a waiver, or partial waiver, then it will be considered," he said.
"There is, however, no entitlement to a tax waiver just because you ask for one."
Mr Hawkins said whether Mr Barr decided to approve an application or not was a matter for him, and the club would decide on an official application once the official charge was known.
