City set to get 4600 new homes

Opening up land at Whakarongo for Palmerston North’s urban growth could begin later this year, as soon as the James Line upgrade is finished.

The area is already zoned for residential development, with room for up to 700 houses, and the council is a key landowner on the upper terrace where building is most likely to start.

But first, ratepayers need to tell the council how fast to move, based on whether they feel they can afford what it is proposing.

Formal consultation on the council’s spending plan for the next decade, which begins with a proposed 6.4 per cent rates rise in 2018/19, starts on Monday.

City planner David Murphy said accelerating the building of a variety of new homes was a critical part of the council’s vision for the city.

The city development strategy, which underpins many of the proposed new capital projects, anticipates the need for 4600 new homes in the next decade.

That was up from the previous target of about 3000.

Although about 45 per cent of new homes would be infill through subdividing existing residential sections, minor dwellings such as granny flats, apartments or new medium-density complexes, more than half would be new builds on the outskirts of the present urban area.

The numbers were based on updated forecasts for population growth, that anticipated the number of people moving to the region would increase faster than earlier predicted.

Murphy said the council’s plans to be more proactive about bringing more land on to the housing market were partly driven by the government’s emphasis on improving the supply of land for housing.

For greenfield sections, Whakarongo was ready to be developed first.

‘‘One of the critical things is having the infrastructure available to enable that to occur, and that’s part of the affordability conversation that we have to have.’’

Some of the projects starting in the first year of the draft plan for Whakarongo include roading ($11.5m), stormwater ($1.8m), water ($3.3m) and wastewater ($1.2m).

Murphy said the council could not just focus on Whakarongo, as it needed to offer choices, and it needed to start planning growth at the opposite end of the city, as well.

It would be working to change the District Plan to free up land at Te Wanaka Rd first, about 220 sections, and then in the wider City West area.

It was keen to rezone the last block of land along Napier Rd between the new retirement village under construction and the sections being created between Roberts Line and James Line.

In Ashhurst, sections in the North St subdivision were selling fast, and the next area for residential growth needed to be identified after resource management commissioners turned down a Winchester St proposal.

Within the existing urban area, the council was close to completing its case for the former Hokowhitu campus rezoning for up to 130 homes.

Meanwhile, city developers have been working fast on their subdivisions in response to strong demand.

Developer Brian Green said the level of activity on the land-andh-ousing package market was not captured by recent Real Estate Institute figures that suggested section sales were slow.

His company recently completed a 65-section block in Pacific Drive, Cyprus Place and Mediterranean Grove, where 45 sections sold virtually immediately.