Mayor wants action on vacant land
With housing looking to be the big issue facing the city as the election looms, we take an in-depth look at the issue over the following pages.
Housing could be the defining issue for Hutt South politicians in the September election.
Hutt City Mayor Ray Wallace wants to know what is happening with 17,000 square metres of vacant Housing New Zealand land in Lower Hutt. It’s a question he gets asked a lot and he reckons that come election time, voters will want an answer.
Despite numerous meetings with HNZ and the government there is still no concrete plans for the land, he said.
There is a significant shortage of flat land in the city making it increasingly hard for those wanting affordable housing.
HNZ has demolished properties in Epuni, Naenae and Petone without giving the council an indication of its future plans.
The council has offered to purchase the land and is keen to work with HNZ to facilitate social and affordable housing, he said.
Social Housing Minister Amy Adams accepts that the land is important to the future development of the city.
‘‘There is no doubt that this is an area of considerable potential for future development, particularly given the recent growth in the Hutt Valley. Housing New Zealand advises me that this area is in active planning for redevelopment.’’
She also noted that there are 3412 HNZ properties in Lower Hutt of which only 2 per cent are vacant.
The council’s property company, Urban Plus, is on the lookout for land and Wallace is frustrated to see so much land going to waste. Urban Plus chief executive Craig Walton is more outspoken. He said the housing shortage is caused by supply and demand, and that government intervention is needed to make more land available.
The biggest owner of vacant land in the city is HNZ and Walton believes the government should be telling HNZ to sell it to the council or to private developers.
A recent report that Hutt City would not be included in the government’s planned Urban Development Authorities (UDAs) con- cerns Walton.
Hutt City is the seventh biggest urban authority and a coordinated approach is needed to free up large tracts of land potentially available in Wainuiomata, he said.
Without a UDA covering Hutt City the land would remain locked away and the Hutt would stagnate.
The UDAs would have the ‘‘tools’’ to develop large blocks of land and co-ordinate large scale brown field projects that the city needs, he said.
Wallace said that the most recent meetings with HNZ have been slightly more positive but he expects the issue to feature prominently in September.
‘‘The big election issue here in the Hutt Valley will be housing and at the moment the report card for them [the Government] is a C minus and that is generous.’’
National list MP Chris Bishop agrees that the future of the vacant land is an important issue.
He frequently gets asked about it and he said it is ‘‘disappointing’’ that so much land remains vacant when there is a clear use for it. Although he cannot go in to detail, he is aware of HNZ’s plans for the land.
‘‘I am confident we will see some progress soon.’’
‘‘The report card for them [the Government] is a C minus and that is generous’’