Latest news with #MediumDensityResidentialStandards
Scoop
4 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Collaboration Essential To Tackling Housing Challenges — LGNZ
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) says it is vital local and central government work together to address the country's housing issues, including incentivising councils to achieve housing growth. This follows the release of the Government's 'Going for Housing Growth' consultation document today, which outlines Pillar 1 of the Government's Going for Housing Growth programme. LGNZ Vice President Campbell Barry says that while many of the proposals are welcome, the time has come for the Government to establish a more positive relationship with councils on housing. 'It's clear that significant action is needed to address New Zealand's housing crisis, and some of what the Government is proposing is a positive step towards this,' says Campbell Barry. 'And while we understand and share the Government's concern around the issues that exist in the RMA space, it's not helpful or accurate to portray councils as the sole architects of New Zealand's housing crisis. 'Councils have faced ongoing uncertainty as planning rules have changed repeatedly; the RMA was replaced, then that system was repealed, there were promises and reversals on the Medium Density Residential Standards, multiple RMA amendments, and now another replacement is being rushed through. 'The goal posts for councils have been constantly shifted.' 'With the exception of Government giving itself power to intervene in plans, we're confident that councils will respond positively to these changes overall. But the Government also needs to give councils the chance to deliver before it imposes unnecessary constraints on local decision-making, such as the ability for Government to intervene directly to alter the structure of council plans.' Campbell Barry says that the best way to achieve housing outcomes is to stop disincentivising councils to allow for growth. 'It's important to acknowledge that many councils across the country have worked extremely hard to cater for growth, as they recognise the need for more housing and growth. 'If the Government wants to encourage the right behaviours in a sustainable way and build on its good work around development levies, it needs to follow through on introducing a share of GST on new builds to encourage councils to support growth — as well as other funding levers that enable housing growth. 'That would be a far better and more effective option than the Government threatening to veto council decisions. 'We look forward to engaging with the Government further to ensure local and central government work together, to address the housing issues that continue to plague our country'.
Scoop
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Govt Overreach Removes Power From Local Councils
Ministers will now be able to override the decisions of councils and locally elected officials. 'Chris Bishop has taken National's general disdain for local councils up a notch and has assigned himself the role of Chief Council Despot,' Labour local government spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. 'Councils are elected by the people they serve and know their regions and cities best. Chris Bishop deciding that plans made by local communities are overly restrictive without any evidence to back it up is wrong. 'National's Resource Management Act legislation is getting the whims of every minister taped to it – instead of protecting natural and urban environments and delivering better outcomes, the hodge podge law is giving Chris Bishop a free pass to do whatever he likes. 'New Zealand is not a sandpit for Chris Bishop to play in. 'We had a bipartisan agreement on Medium Density Residential Standards which National backed out of. They shafted councils on water, pulled out of RMA reform that was already underway to fix intensification, and used their fast-track law to override much of what local communities want. 'National has long displayed a thinly veiled disdain for local Government, offending regional and local councils at every turn, it's not just rude, it's poor politics. There is absolutely nothing heroic about this,' Tangi Utikere said.
The Spinoff
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Spinoff
What Chris Bishop's decision on Plan Change 14 means for Christchurch
Minister of RMA reform Chris Bishop has responded to Christchurch City Council's alternative proposals around its district plan. His decisions have consequences for transport and house prices as the southern city grows. Where will future housing growth in Christchurch go? Will new houses be built on the outskirts of the city, or close to the centre? A decision by RMA reform minister Chris Bishop made earlier this month goes some way to answering these questions. Bishop rejected the majority of changes Christchurch City Council had wanted to make to its district plan (called Plan Change 14), which were an alternative to changes that had been recommended by the city's independent hearings panel in 2024. The council had accepted the majority of the panel's recommendations in December 2024, including building heights of 14 metres in all commercial centres, higher limits in certain areas, higher buildings in walking catchments around shopping centres and removing character protections in some areas. But, the council proposed alternatives for 20 of the changes it did not accept, which had to be approved by the RMA minister. One was having ' sunlight access ' as a factor when considering new housing; essentially saying that because of Christchurch's lower latitude compared to cities in the North Island, buildings shouldn't be allowed to be built as high because they would block sunlight for neighbouring homes. Campaigners against the nationwide building height increase in urban areas used the slogan 'stop daylight robbery'. The council proposed lower heights of buildings in Christchurch than the MDRS (Medium Density Residential Standards) mandates, to make the amount of sun access even. Bishop rejected this alternative request, as well as limits to high-density specifications in the suburbs of Riccarton, Linwood and Hornby, which all have big populations and commercial centres as well as historic housing, and therefore good potential for intensification but also residents with concerns about growth. However, he approved three of the suggestions, including further intensification around designated suburban centres like Barrington in Spreydon. Christchurch City Council had initially rejected the previous government's efforts to make intensification rules consistent across the country through the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) in 2022, wanting a custom approach rather than a national standard. However, despite multiple time extensions, Christchurch eventually had to go through the process of adopting policies 3 and 4 of the NPS-UD, which focus on intensification in urban areas, as well as the MDRS. 'Together, these decisions will enable a greater level of development in and around Christchurch City's urban centres,' said Bishop in a press release announcing his decision. 'This doesn't feel like the best outcome [for our city],' said Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger in a press release responding to Bishop's decision. 'In putting these decisions forward to the government, we obviously wanted to get all of our alternative recommendations approved. So, to only have three of them get the tick is a kick in the guts.' Sara Templeton, a councillor for the Heathcote area who is also running for mayor, said the minister's decision was not unexpected, and now it was time to get on with it. Christchurch needed more housing to accommodate future growth, she said. 'Christchurch is forecast to increase by 30,000 people in the next decade – that's the size of Timaru,' she said. 'We can't keep sprawling onto the productive soils around Christchurch.' Residents associations were supportive of Christchurch City Council having a custom district plan, and disappointed by Bishop's decision. 'If there is a housing supply shortage, it's probably in those sorts of properties in the inner city, which are slowly disappearing,' said Tony Simons, a representative of a group of residents associations, as reported by RNZ. 'What Chris Bishop has decided is to let developers build what they want, pretty much where they want, and that's a shame.' The urbanist group Greater Ōtautahi supported Bishop's decision, saying the changes would allow walkable communities in areas like Riccarton and Papanui; much of the growth is around shopping centres. 'Allowing more homes where people want to live is an important step for the future of Ōtautahi. This means that people are able to live with dignity in a home that is more affordable,' said Greater Ōtautahi chairperson M Grace-Stent in a press release. The whole process raises questions about how local and central government interact, and whether the government is truly embracing 'localism'. 'My preference is for central government to let local gov know the outcomes it wants and hold local government to account for heading in that direction,' Templeton said. This would allow councils like Christchurch to make sure a more 'strategic' approach was adopted as the city intensified housing, ensuring new housing was concentrated in areas where amenities and public transport already existed. 'When we sprawl, it increases rates for residents over time,' said Templeton, who wants transport planning to be aligned with housing intensification. 'Growth in areas without transport means more cars on the outskirts, more driving through neighbourhoods, more traffic at rush hour.' Christchurch City Council hasn't approved the MDRS, and currently has until the end of the year to do so. However, that looks likely to change; a bill revising the current Resource Management Act (RMA) was introduced with a provision that councils could opt out of the MDRS if they had provided for 30 years of housing growth in their district or unitary plans. Followin g Auckland Council's decision not to approve intensification around rapid public transport corridors like the City Rail Link stations, the environment select committee recommended amendments to the bill that would still allow Auckland and Christchurch to opt out of the MDRS, but require them both to follow 'bespoke' processes that would mandate more intensification around urban centres and public transport hubs.
NZ Herald
13-06-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Auckland's new housing density plans, Wayne Brown's big scheme and more speed limit silliness: Simon Wilson
Remember 2021? That was the year the Labour Government and National Opposition announced a cross-party housing accord. It had a noble goal: to take politics out of the planning for greater density in our big cities. It also had a controversial result: the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), which for many people allowed far too much density, especially when it might be right next to their own villas. Properties could be divided in three, and on each third, a three-storey dwelling could be built. The cross-party accord didn't make it to the next election, with National walking away from it in 2023, but in the way of statutory regulations, the MDRS have lingered on. That's all over now. Bishop and Brown have jointly announced that the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill is back from select committee hearings. A boring name, but this is big. The bill is 'significantly changed' from its original draft and will become law within a month or two. Although the MDRS will be gone, greater density is still coming to Auckland. The ministers call it 'city shaping' and say their aim is to 'fully harness the economic growth benefits of the new City Rail Link'. With more trains and faster journeys, the City Rail Link will make homes and workplaces along all parts of the rail network more attractive, so that's where the Government and council are focusing their density planning. So, instead of allowing three-storey townhouses almost everywhere that wasn't designated 'special character' or 'heritage', the focus will be on transit corridors. Bishop has been working closely on this with Mayor Wayne Brown and his Policy and Planning Committee chair, councillor Richard Hills. The idea driving the minister has always been plain. 'It doesn't make sense that we have single-storey houses on quarter-acre sections a stone's throw away from stations that, in a year or so, will see trains every few minutes,' he said on Wednesday. The Character Coalition, which lobbies to preserve villa suburbs, has responded to this today, saying there are almost no 'quarter-acre' of the kind Bishop describes. Fair point, he exaggerates. But his basic point remains. 'The Government and the [Auckland] Council are investing billions in CRL and have a shared vision for stations that become hubs for public transport, mixed-use development and new housing.' It's not just single-storey houses that could give way to medium-rise development. Low-rise commercial properties are also targeted. Six-storey development will be permitted within walkable distances of train stations and other transit stations such as those on the Northern and Eastern Busways. The revised bill makes specific reference to three railway stations on the Western Line: Maungawhau (Mt Eden), Kingsland and Morningside. 'Successive governments and councils have failed to grasp this opportunity for economic growth in New Zealand's largest city,' Bishop said. 'This is how modern, growing cities all around the world operate, and now it's Auckland's turn.' In my view, Bishop is largely right about all this. The whole process is kind of technical, but bear with me. Since 2022, the council has been working through a long and extremely bureaucratic review called Plan Change 78 (PC78), to identify which parts of the city would be open to the greater density set out in the MDRS. As Bishop says, 'Progress has been slow for many reasons, including the Auckland floods. The intensification plan change process does not allow Auckland to 'downzone' certain areas due to natural hazard risk – only to 'upzone' them – and the council wrote to the Government asking them to fix this problem.' That is, after the 2023 floods it became worrying clear that the planning rules could not prevent development on flood plains. This should now change. The Government will allow the council to withdraw PC78, although not entirely, and not so it can revert to its old ways. Bishop told the council earlier in the year to get its PC78 decision-making done for the central city, and that has now happened. Higher buildings will be permitted, although not everywhere (more on this soon). This aspect of PC78 is not being withdrawn. The precinct around the Morningside train station is top of Minister Bishop's list for more housing density. Photo / Janna Dixon But for the rest of the city, Bishop has instructed Mayor Brown to process a new plan change urgently. They have until October 10 to do it, and the resulting housing capacity must not be less than was going to be permitted under the PC78 and the MDRS. This means that if the council wants to limit density in some areas, like flood plains, it will have to increase the capacity in others. And if the council wants to continue preserving the villa suburbs, it will need to find a way to do that while still allowing medium-rise along the railway lines. And do it inside the next four months. Which, as it happens, is the exact same period in which we will be electing a new council. The last day for voting is October 12. In several parts of the city, this is going to be a very hot election topic. Not least among them, an enormous swathe of suburbia that runs from Kingsland and Sandringham, down through Balmoral and Mt Roskill to Onehunga. This was exempted from planning rules under PC78, pending a decision on the exact route through those suburbs of the Labour Government's ill-fated Auckland Light Rail line to the airport. That exemption will not survive and greater density is likely for these suburbs sooner rather than later. Bishop's intent seems clear: he wants the council to pull finger. 'The government is also considering whether further amendments to the bill to fully maximise development opportunities around other CRL stations are necessary,' he said on Wednesday, 'and I will have more to say in due course.' Anyone for bird bollards? Mayor Brown has instructed Auckland Transport to come up with 'innovative, value for money' ways to create cycleways. Got one! In London, a company has invented Tulip Wands: Tulip bulbs made from recycled plastic that sit atop flexible sticks to warn drivers not to stray into the cycle lane. Tulip cycle wands helping to keep traffic out of a cycleway in London. Cheap and surely guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. But why should London have all the fun? If we did that here, tulips might be a bit odd, and we don't have flowers of our own that could function in a similar way. Kowhai don't really stick up in the same way. Flax caddies would be good, although possibly too complicated. So what about birds? Kiwi, kōtare, kea, kākā, imagine riding along and coming across a kākāpo! Even the ones that don't start with k would work. We could call them Bird Bollards. Or Kiwi Krash Wardens. Or Magic Manu. Hey, Auckland Transport, or Mr Mayor, or absolutely any entrepreneur with an eye for opportunity: you can have this idea for free. What Wayne Brown really wants from this election Why did Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and his deputy, Desley Simpson, bury the hatchet ahead of the council election in October? They don't get on – even in their joint announcement they said things that annoyed each other. They were going to battle each other for the mayoralty. Simpson explained that when it came down to it, there weren't any big policy differences between the two, which is probably true. But what Brown said pointed to a much stronger purpose for the pair. They're setting up a ticket. Wayne Brown and Desley Simpson announcing they are running together, for mayor and deputy, on a Fix Auckland ticket. Photo / New Zealand Herald Under the name Fix Auckland, which was Brown's slogan in 2022, they are inviting candidates for council to apply to join them. This isn't just to give them a reliable voting bloc, because Brown pretty much has that already. Councillors who might join them, like Greg Sayers in Rodney, Andy Baker in Franklin and Daniel Newman in Manurewa-Papakura, already vote with Brown most of the time. The real value of the ticket is that it will allow Brown to campaign against some of the councillors he believes play obstructive and damaging roles. Top of his list are the two he calls 'the Albanians': Wayne Walker and John Watson, who represent the Albany ward. Both cheered Brown's election in 2022 but they've fallen out badly with him since. The mayor makes no secret of his frustration at their strident opposition to most things he wants to do. That frustration extends to others, most notably Mike Lee from Waitematā and Gulf, who was also a cheerleader for Brown until he wasn't, and Lotu Fuli from Manukau. Lee's seat is highly marginal, but Walker, Watson and Fuli have big majorities and in ordinary circumstances would be unlikely to lose. But if Brown can find credible Fix Auckland candidates to stand against them, it could make quite a difference. The councillors Mayor Brown calls "the Albanians": Albany ward's John Watson, left, and Wayne Walker. He will also want to find credible candidates to replace four other councillors who have often opposed him and are now retiring: Angela Dalton in Manurewa-Papakura, Chris Darby in North Shore, Alf Filipaina in Manukau and Kerrin Leoni in Whau (who is standing for the mayoralty but not the ward). However, talk of political tickets on council should not be overstated. The track record is less than reassuring. For example, there are currently two councillors who were elected in 2022 on the National Party-aligned Communities and Residents (C&R) ticket: Christine Fletcher and Simpson herself. But they have never worked as a team and often don't vote the same way. Simpson left C&R last year in circumstances that remain unexplained. The National Party has other members on council too, including the former cabinet minister Maurice Williamson, but none of them stood as a party candidate and they are not organised as a team. On the Labour side of politics it's much the same. Six councillors belong to the party and four of them (Josephine Bartley, Filipaina, Fuli and Leoni) even stood under the Labour name. But the other two (Shane Henderson and Richard Hills) didn't. The six don't always vote together and they were bitterly split by Brown's proposal to sell the council's airport shares. Similar splits in party allegiances have happened in the Wellington City Council. In short, having a ticket will enhance Brown's chances of getting his chosen candidates elected to council while removing some he doesn't want. But if he wants his ticket to vote consistently as a team, he'll need someone to help him build caucus discipline. And that is something the more people-oriented Desley Simpson is likely to be better at than him. This is the strength of their union. What we don't yet know is what she'll get out of it. Wrangling in the Waitematā The existence of a Fix Auckland ticket may be especially influential in the Waitematā and Gulf ward, which covers the inner city plus Waiheke and Aotea/Great Barrier islands. Incumbent Mike Lee, an independent, will be opposed by Patrick Reynolds, a transport expert and deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel. He's the candidate for City Vision, an umbrella group for Labour, the Greens and progressive independents. At least two members of the local board are also expected to join the race: Sarah Trotman, of C&R, and Genevieve Sage, who was elected on the C&R ticket in 2022 but forced out when she accepted City Vision support to become chair of the board. Sage and Trotman may both be keen on a Fix Auckland endorsement. Meanwhile, the election for the Waitematā local board itself has attracted a couple of extremely notable candidates. One is Anne Batley Burton, who was once one of TV's Real Housewives of Auckland. She calls herself the Champagne Lady, because she imports champagne and is often photographed holding a glass of the stuff. She also calls herself the Pussy Cat Lady, because her 'main passion in life is looking after stray and abandoned cats'. She's on the C&R ticket. Anne Batley Burton, who is running for the Waitematā Local Board. Photo / Supplied The other is Connor Sharp, on the City Vision ticket. Sharp has become one of the leading advocates of 'density done well' in a functional, thriving and less car-dependent city. He writes for the Greater Auckland website, most recently about ways for the Karangahape Rd precinct to fulfil its potential once the City Rail Link opens. Sharp likes to quote the Danish urban planner Jan Gehl: 'A good city is like a good party – people stay longer than really necessary because they are enjoying themselves. If you see a city with many children and many old people using the city's public spaces, it's a sign that it's a good quality place for people.' Sharp says the city centre waterfront is perhaps the best example. 'People flock to Te Komititanga square every day, drawn there not only by the central train station, ferries, express buses, and bike paths, but also attracted by the new shops, seating and trees to sit under, and places to gather, pause, and enjoy the show. 'We do this because it is somewhere we feel safe and comfortable to relax and have fun. Yet only a decade ago Te Komititanga was a road, filled with buses. Now, it is a place to go to, rather than go through. It's emblematic of a general buzz – more people shopping and visiting businesses, boosting the economy while securing jobs and creating opportunities to connect.' Batley Burton, for her part, says she wants to 'take back Auckland's Viaduct' for Super City socialites. That's two very different Aucklands represented right there. The ongoing oddities of the new speed rules As the July 1 deadline for implementing the Government's badly written new Speed Rule draws close, more silliness unfolds. Speed warnings still dominate our billboards - despite the reversal of lowered speed limits on many highway corridors. Photo / Mark Story One example: At Hatfields Beach, on the Hibiscus Coast Highway north of Ōrewa, motorists can now drive at 70km through the area populated by beachgoers and other pedestrians but must then shift down to 60km through open farmland before being allowed to speed up to 80km. Auckland Transport chair Richard Leggat wrote to the Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, seeking clarification, but an OIA request I made on the correspondence shows the response he received was not heartening. Bishop has confirmed that whatever the anomalies and oddities, the higher speed limits mandated by the new rule will be in place by July 1. Most are already in place. When AT met with the council in early June, speed limits were on the agenda. So was temporary traffic management, better known as the curse of the road cones. Councillor Julie Fairey asked AT's chief executive Dean Kimpton about the relationship between the two. Julie Fairey. Photo / Supplied Everyone wants fewer cones, she pointed out, but once all the higher speed limits are in, won't that mean any new temporary traffic management on those roads will have to be more intense, because the risks are greater? 'Will higher speeds mean more road cones?' she asked. 'It could do,' replied Kimpton, 'it could do.' Unintended consequences, eh. Kimpton also said that now lower speed limits had been removed as a tool to improve road safety, 'we're looking at a system-wide approach'. This led to a peculiar observation. 'One outcome could be that we put in more safety infrastructure,' he said, 'and that makes the roads safer.' He kept a straight face while he said it. In reality, the 'safety infrastructure' he's talking about is more pedestrian crossings and raised crossings on urban roads, more median barriers and wide shoulders on rural roads, and more expensive intersection redesigns. All of which will cost a lot more and not be popular with the drivers the higher speed limits are designed to appease. Unintended consequences, again? It would be if it happened. But it won't, because there's no budget to replace cheap and effective lower speed zones with expensive road redesigns. Auckland Transport's chief executive, Dean Kimpton. Photo / Jason Oxenham In the same meeting, councillor Richard Hills had a question for the AT executives. 'We know raising speeds will increase deaths and serious injuries. It's not a guesstimate, it's data. So who is responsible under the Health and Safety Act for those extra deaths and injuries? Is it just the minister? Is it you? Is it us?' AT's general counsel Gavin Scott replied, 'We're comfortable that we have fulfilled our duties in regard to safety.' Really? AT is designated under statute as the road-controlling authority (RCA) for non-highway roads in Auckland. Precisely because road use is inherently dangerous, RCAs are legally responsible to maintain roads, and the rules for their use, to a standard the public can rely on with a reasonable expectation of safety. But Scott then said, 'People in the public realm are beyond our obligations.' What? To sign up to Simon Wilson's weekly newsletter click here, select Love this City and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
1News
07-06-2025
- Politics
- 1News
'Kick in the guts': Govt knocks back Christchurch council housing plans
The mayor of Christchurch says a government knock-back on its three-year battle to create a custom carve-out of national housing intensification rules feels like a "kick in the guts", but others are welcoming the certainty of the move. On Friday, Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop issued a final decision on 17 of 20 recommendations the city council had referred after rejecting recommendations from an independent panel on the council's plan to shape a bespoke Christchurch response to national housing density policy). Minister Bishop rejected the bulk of the council's proposals. In 2021, the then-government released its National Policy Statement on Urban Development, a plan to ramp up housing intensification across most urban areas but focused on the five high growth centres of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch, amid bi-partisan support for the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, though the National Party would later withdraw its backing. The bill contained Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), which detail what development can occur without the need for resource consent, public notification and consultation in the areas identified as most in need of housing intensification. ADVERTISEMENT Those rules were intended to apply across all residential zones in those identified cities, unless "qualifying matters" made intensification inappropriate. The decisions come into effect immediately and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. (Source: In 2022, the council voted to reject the standards, despite warnings that a commissioner could be appointed. Instead, the council began several years of consultation, submissions and hearings on Plan Change 14 - its proposed changes to the district plan that would give effect to the Medium Density Residential Standards, but in a way, it claimed better acknowledged the character and context of the city. The council temporarily halted the process following the last election, and was later granted an extension until the end of this year on some aspects of the plan change. Minister Bishop declined a further extension request last month. The council's stance culminated in an Independent Hearing Panel (IHP), which reported back in the middle of last year. ADVERTISEMENT The council accepted the majority of the IHP's recommendations, which were incorporated into the district plan. But it rejected various aspects of the proposed plan, making twenty counter-recommendations that went to the Minister. The minister announced on Friday he had rejected 14 of the council's recommendations, accepted three and deferred his decision on three more. Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop has rejected the bulk of the council's proposals. (Source: The decision means some parts of the city will be zoned higher-density housing and taller buildings, while the council will not be allowed to use several different "qualifying matters" to refuse consents even in high density zones - most controversially, one that hinged on the impediment of sunlight and proposed the Garden City should get an exemption because its southern location meant sunlight angles differ. Bishop's announcement locks in changes for areas in and around the CBD, and the "town centres" of Riccarton, Hornby and Linwood, which will be zoned high density residential. Taller buildings will be allowed within 600 metres of shopping areas in some suburbs - 32m (around ten storeys high) for the Hornby shopping area, 14m for high density residential zones surrounding the shopping area, 22m (around six storeys) for Linwood's town centre, and 14m for high density residential zones around it. The council's bids to create qualifying matters on the basis of sunlight access, recession planes (a line or plane which limits how close a building can be to a property boundary), or by location - such as 'the City Spine' (major transport routes) or Riccarton Bush - also failed. Nor did the minster accept areas around Peer Street in Ilam or the Papanui War Memorial Avenues should be excluded from density rules or allowed special consideration. The council proposals the minister did accept were Local Centre Intensification Precinct - intensification around eight of the city's commercial centres, including Barrington, Prestons and Wigram; increasing the building height overlay for the former stock yards site on Deans Avenue (a prime spot adjacent to Hagley Park, currently used as car parking for the Christchurch Hospital shuttle service) to up to 36m; and allowing high density residential zoning for Milton Street (the site of the Milton St substation, which Fletchers plans to build 80 homes on). ADVERTISEMENT All other council alternative recommendations were rejected in favour of the hearing panel recommendations. The minister has deferred decision-making for the heritage listing for Daresbury - a historic home in Fendalton; Antonio Hall - a derelict historic home on Riccarton Rd; and Piko Character Area - a Riccarton residential neighbourhood made up of many original state houses from the 1930s - until the council decided on the underlying zoning. Antonio Hall after a fire in 2019. (Source: "In putting these decisions forward to the government, we obviously wanted to get all of our alternative recommendations approved. So to only have three of them get the tick is a kick in the guts," mayor Phil Mauger said. "This plan change has been a huge undertaking for our city, and we've said right the way through that we want to get the best outcome we possibly can. This doesn't feel like the best outcome. "To that end, we'll keep working hard as a council, and there are still major decisions yet to be made when it comes to housing density and planning across much of Christchurch, so watch this space." New Zealand has one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the OECD. ADVERTISEMENT Urbanist collective Greater Ōtautahi welcomed the minister's decision. Chairperson M Grace-Stent said the decision finally brought some certainty after years of delays, decision making, submissions and hearing panels. "What we're most excited about is that Ōtautahi Christchurch is set up for the future, it has certainty around where it can grow and where it can continue to develop in the future." The decision will not mean apartment buildings spring up overnight, they said. "It's still going to be a slow developing process, just as our cities always continually change. This is just another step." The city also needed to turn its attention to improving public transport. "Ōtautahi Christchurch definitely needs a reevaluation of its transport system. We've been calling for the introduction of mass rapid transport across the city to support and facilitate the kind of growth and development that needs to happen, and to make sure that everyone has a choice about how they're getting around the city and aren't forced to just pick cars." ADVERTISEMENT Grace-Stent said the debate touched on ideas embedded in the national psyche about how and where New Zealanders live. They said the quarter-acre dream of a stand alone house on a large section is unsustainable and doesn't not always produce greater social outcomes. "Not everyone wants to live the exact same lifestyle - allowing more housing to be built allows people to make that choice for themselves. So if people want to be living on 1/4 acre block, they're allowed to, and if people want to be living in an apartment close to their friends and amenities and where they work, they also have that choice." They acknowledged that some medium and high-density housing is not built to high standards but said some of that was due to limitations of the current zoning process, which can mean the lowest bidder builds on these sites. "This is just the first step into assuring that everyone has a home that is liveable and that works for them, and is good quality. There also needs to be changes throughout the way that we are think about housing and building houses across the country," Grace-Stent said. The decisions, which come into effect immediately, are final and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. The council has until the end of the year to decide on density rules for the rest of the city. It was unable to confirm by deadline how much it had spent fighting the density rules, but had budgeted for $7 million between 2021 and the middle of this year. By Keiller MacDuff of
