Intervention likely in housing density dispute
CHRISTCHURCH: The Government is likely to intervene to implement housing density standards in Christchurch after its council voted to reject the ruling, mayor Lianne Dalziel said.
The Christchurch City Council is writing to Environment Minister Kiri Allan demanding to be left out of the government’s rules for building more houses.
The council yesterday voted against implementing the national standards for housing density which allow apartment blocks of up to 10 storeys in some central suburbs, and homes up to three storeys tall on most residential sections, without planning permission.
Councillors, who were supposed to be submitting their own plans for how they would comply with the new law, have instead said they want the government to reconsider how the law might best be applied in a heritage city such as Christchurch.
But the Government could dig its heels in, too, putting it at loggerheads with the local leadership of the country’s secondlargest city, currently led by a respected former Labour cabinet minister.
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said supporters of the decision to reject the housing density standards had been warned of the potential for a government intervention.
‘‘Local government doesn’t get to pick and choose what central government requires it to do.
‘‘The law was changed last year. In fact, Labour and National held hands — they talked to each other before local government was talked to about introducing medium density residential standards across all of the tier one cities that was written into the Resource Management Act.
‘‘And we’re required by law to do it,’’ Ms Dalziel said.
The Government now had the option to require somebody else, such as a commissioner, to apply the new density standards, she said.
This was likely the decision the government would make.
‘‘That I think is the step they’ll probably take, I’m certainly writing to the minister and asking them not to take that step but to work collaboratively with this city to try and resolve some of the outstanding issues.’’
One of the issues in question was the lack of requirement for developers to retain existing trees, plant new trees or make financial contributions to council efforts to maintain the city’s tree canopies, Ms Dalziel said.
The mayor confirmed she had voted to implement the housing
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INTERMEDIATE (2 pts) Answers: EXPERT (3 pts)
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