Infill housing in crosshairs
Homeowners share horror stories of ‘scungy’ developments cropping up next door.
‘‘People are feeling powerless, people are feeling if something is happening next door, they have absolutely no say in it.’’
City bosses are being urged to crack down on ‘‘scungy developers’’ as residents speak out against infill housing projects clogging their neighbourhoods.
Infill development has become a key focus of Hamilton City Council in recent years as the city looks to boost the number of new homes built.
But growing numbers of city residents are sharing horror stories about large housing developments cropping up next door without warning.
Making rule changes around infill housing dominated discussion at the inaugural meeting of the council’s strategic growth committee.
‘‘I think as a council we’ve gone holus-bolus on this [infill] across the city and I think it’s time for some restrictions,’’ councillor Geoff Taylor told colleagues.
‘‘Otherwise I think, in a decade or so, we’re going to make a mess of this city. People are feeling powerless, people are feeling if something is happening next door, they have absolutely no say in it.’’
Councillors will be briefed in March on rules in place around infill developments and possible changes they can make. But Taylor said the council needs to move quickly and wants money set aside to fund a change to the city’s district plan.
The district plan is considered one of the city’s key documents. Its overall aim is to manage growth.
‘‘Better conversations with neighbours early on, better quality standards, are two improvements we can can make in a relatively short time,’’ Taylor said.
Speaking after the meeting, developer Andrew Yeoman said any good housing development is sympathetic to its surrounds.
A few ‘‘fly-by-night’’ or inexperienced developers were responsible for some horrible housing projects in the city.
‘‘Often you get these new developers that don’t quite understand basic design principles and unfortunately these fly-by-night developers can give everybody else a bad reputation which is frustrating,’’ Yeoman said.
‘‘They look at their profit margins and they don’t fully understand how to effectively develop.’’
It’s good practice for developers to introduce themselves to neighbouring residents and keep them informed of planned projects, Yeoman said, but he’s unsure if changes to the district plan are needed.
Councillor Ryan Hamilton said the city has one of the highest rates of infill in its history but this has caused some neighbourhood roads to become congested with parked cars.
Councillor Martin Gallagher said the council should properly resource staff to allow them to hammer ‘‘scungy developers’’ who subvert planning rules.
When giving approval to any infill development, Gallagher said elected members need to think of what types of homes they want their children to live in.
‘‘If your planning leaves kids of this town, grandkids, to live in horrible flats, with no views or a lack of amenities, we are collectively responsible,’’ he said.
‘‘I think it’s absolutely time for a major reset. I want our building inspectors to stop these slum developments.’’
Councillor Mark Bunting said the council’s focus should be on building up in the central city rather than continuing the outward sprawl.
‘‘Density isn’t a bad thing if it’s in the right place,’’ he said. ‘‘The free-for-all that we’ve got going on at the moment isn’t
‘‘I want our building inspectors to stop these slum developments.’’ Martin Gallagher
infill, it’s outfill.’’
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate shared councillors’ concerns and said fire trucks would struggle to drive down some suburban streets in the evening due to the number of cars parked on the road.
When approving infill developments, council had to be mindful of existing residents’ rights to retain their quality of life.
‘‘We all want to get infill, we all want to get people into new houses, we support greater density, but we’ve got to do it in the right way,’’ Southgate said.