Medium density not a monster

Medium-density housing. Twenty years ago, as we scanned the sizeable expanse of our semi-bucolic suburban backyards, we would have scratched our heads at that one.

Maybe it meant having more than one person sleeping in a bedroom? Or having to share a bathroom with the mother-in-law?

That was then. This is now. Medium-density is a term set for high rotate and it’s likely to leave some in a spin.

Issues around access to housing in Lower Hutt and elsewhere demonstrate that many of us are still drinking the Kool Aid, the high fences surrounding that quarter-acre dream protecting the property market for the few while leaving so many others on the outer, struggling to find a way in.

For those seemingly locked out by skyrocketing land prices and a lack of supply, two cogs in a vicious cycle of property pain, medium-density and infill housing could be viable options for entry. And some relief.

As commentators have pointed out, most recently in this paper’s weekend Insight feature on the Kiwi housing puzzle, the family home on a large section is now a fiction, especially in our bigger cities.

And that dream will be even more out of reach as those cities grow further (Wellington is tipped to expand by 80,000 people in the next 25 years).

That means smaller houses on much smaller properties will play an important role in accommodating some of those already in front of us and the many more expected to come. Residents in Lower Hutt are right to be anxious. Anyone who has been forced awake from a lovely dream will understand the feeling of uncertainty and anxiety that can follow.

But change is coming; the dream must give way to reality, and better to have some plans and guidelines in place to ease the transition.

The Hutt City Council should be congratulated for acknowledging that future and seeking the support and feedback of its residents and ratepayers.

By looking to adjust its District Plan it has the best opportunity to build a set of regulatory and design templates that encourage good medium-density development while preserving as much as possible those aspects of ‘community’ that are most important to its residents.

This need not end in row upon row of brutal tenements or shoulder-to-shoulder squalor.

The Awatea suburb in Christchurch is a pointer to what can be done to provide good quality housing on a smaller footprint. Two- and three-bedroom houses are built on 150m2 land, but all have access to good schools, parks, shops and other amenities.

The backyard might be minimal but the community is maximised.

Providing that good public realm is key, and it’s more likely to happen if the relevant local authority has used its district plan to set the bar high and then works with potential developers to help them meet it.

This is even more likely to succeed if that plan has been developed in combination with residents willing to share the property dream with others.

This need not end in row upon row of brutal tenements.