Residents fight state houses
Meadowbank people latest to oppose high-density development on their doorstep
Residents of an upmarket Auckland suburb are the latest to launch a fight over plans for a highdensity development on their doorstep.
Housing New Zealand plans to build 11 new state housing units in Orakei Basin, on land half the size of what it initially planned to develop.
The battle by Meadowbank residents is not the first, and will not be the last, since the Unitary Plan came into effect last year enabling greater intensification.
The development on Meadowbank’s Purewa Rd would add more state houses in an area that has just had a cluster built on Tahapa Cres and has another block being built on Koa St.
A plot of HNZ land, on Puroto St, was originally to be developed with Purewa Rd to house 12 units.
Plans for the higher-density proposal of 11 units on the Purewa Rd site only have not yet been finalised and are still awaiting council approval. However if approved, the development would consist of nine two-bedroom units in three threestorey apartment buildings as well as two two-bedroom duplexes.
Any new plans for the Puroto St site have not been made public.
Resident Grant Dickson, who lives behind one of the plots about to be developed, said it was too many homes in a space already tight.
While he acknowledged that intensification was necessary, he felt this was going too far.
“What we want is notification of the resource consent, a review by an urban designer and for HNZ to sell some off privately because they have doubled the social housing numbers in a small area,” he said.
Dickson has been fighting the intensification of his neighbourhood for a couple of years and has support from neighbours and the residents’ association.
HWatch video from the Orakei residents at nzherald.co.nz
HNZ general manager asset development Patrick Dougherty said the development of 11 two-bedroom units was about making the best use of government land. “HNZ is seeking to . . . deliver much-needed housing for Auckland, without expanding its existing footprint.”
In a letter to residents, HNZ explained that greater intensification was due to its “demand analysis” and information from the Ministry of Social Development indicating a higher need for smaller homes.
Matt Lowrie edits the Greater Auckland blog, which campaigned for greater intensification through the Unitary Plan.
He said that under the Unitary Plan these types of developments would continue to pop up and, as long as they fit the plan’s parameters, “there’s no reason why locals should be able to try and stop it”. “The point of the plan is Auckland needs more homes.” There was no reason why welldesigned new properties could not fit in with the character of older houses on a street. A drive through the leafy suburb with a median home value of $1.3 million shows an eclectic mix of homes from brick bungalows to apartment-style buildings. QV.co.nz’s suburb insights indicated 37 per cent of its residents earned more than $100,000 while 24 per cent earned $50,000 to $100,000. The development is but one of the projects HNZ is carrying out as part of plans, announced by Social Housing Minister Amy Adams last week, to increase the city’s housing stock.
These plans would result in a net 26,000 new affordable and market houses being built, with up to 6000 state houses, within the decade.
In the past fortnight, two other private developments, in Takapuna and Mt Albert, have made headlines as disgruntled residents opposed the influx of homes and people into their neighbourhood.
However, as Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend said after news of a private developer’s plans to build new homes in the central city suburb of Mt Albert, opposition was understandable but likely to be futile.
He said the Unitary Plan was prodevelopment, “which is good, because we have a massive shortfall”.
The Meadowbank development is on land zoned as mixed housing urban zone, which allows for two dwellings of up to three storeys. Any more requires council consent.