Taller builds, smaller lots
Hamilton leaders respond to the call for cities to grow up
Section sizes will shrink, house builds will get taller and protecting the Waikato River will remain a top priority.
Hamilton City Council has revealed its response to the Government’s edict for fast-growing cities to embrace housing intensification – and it puts the Waikato River’s wellbeing at the heart of plan changes. The Government last year unveiled new housing rules which allow more homes to be built quicker in burgeoning metros.
High on the Government’s wish list is for cities to grow up, not just out. Think apartment blocks and multi-level townhouses.
The sweeping rule changes allow developers to build three homes of up to three storeys on most sections as of right.
Cutting housing red tape is a key plank of the Government’s drive to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis.
Yet council leaders have raised concerns the move could lead to unfettered development and potentially overwhelm cities’ ageing infrastructure.
A ‘river city’ response
Hamilton City Council’s proposed planning rule changes put the health of the Waikato River front and centre. The city has a legal obligation to protect and enhance the Waikato River’s wellbeing as expressed in Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato/the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River.
Hamilton’s bespoke approach, dubbed ‘‘eco-density’’, enables more compact housing in parts of the city while ensuring the river is protected.
The central city will see the most housing intensification, with the council already allowing unlimited building heights. Planning bosses also want to enable taller builds in parts of Whitiora, Te Rapa and Hamilton East with a resource consent.
Areas within a short walk of suburban centres – Hamilton East village, Chartwell, Five Cross Roads, Glenview, Frankton, Dinsdale, Nawton and Thomas Rd shops – will be rezoned to medium density.
Builds of between three and five storeys will be allowed, subject to a resource consent and other assessments.
The minimum section size will shrink to 150 square metres in areas zoned medium density.
‘‘In these suburban centres you find supermarkets, libraries, doctors’ [clinics], and so they are more suited to density,’’ Mark Davey, Hamilton City Council’s city planning manager, said.
Across the rest of the city, the minimum section size for a standalone house will be reduced, from 400sqm down to 200sqm.
Davey said Hamilton had effectively embraced housing intensification during the past decade with about 50% of new homes built within existing, older suburbs.
The city council’s planning rules presently allow one duplex on a 400sqm section – effectively, one unit per 200sqm.
‘‘The shift for Hamilton is going from a duplex unit on a 200sqm site to a broader range of typologies at that higher density.
‘‘Instead of just having a duplex typology, which is a specific form, you could have stand alone, detached dwellings on that same size or some form of terraced house.’’
To protect the city’s environment, the council is proposing a suite of ‘‘green policies’’ that include requirements for developments to have on-site rainwater tanks, quality landscaping, and drainage to help water conservation and manage stormwater.
An important tool to further protect the Waikato River will be a three waters connections policy.
If a development puts unacceptable strain on the city’s three waters network, it could be refused under the policy.
‘‘We would like to avoid having to use it [three waters connections policy] because we would like our district plan to be doing all the heavy lifting,’’ Davey said.
‘‘But if we do find ourselves in the position whereby, for whatever reason, there is a huge amount of development going into a certain area, and we know our network can’t cope with that, there is the connections policy there to safeguard against those effects.’’
The council is also considering introducing a financial contribution to be paid by developers to offset the impacts of intensification. The funds would pay for things like gully and river restoration, pipe renewals and making city streets more attractive.
Hamilton, it is a-changin’
Hamilton’s response to the Government’s growth directives, known as plan change 12, will be notified on August 19 and then the public will get a chance to have their say.
The new rules are not expected to come into effect until late-2023 or early 2024.
Hamilton City Council is also working through another plan change to protect the city’s heritage and natural environment, named plan change 9. About 6660 landowners have been sent letters detailing how the changes will impact their properties.
Plan change 9 will slow down development in specific areas of the city and is expected to be publicly notified in July.
‘‘The enabling housing act that the Government introduced sets a very high bar in terms of what can and can’t be protected so that is why the heritage discussion is really important,’’ Davey said.
Tightening up rules for properties identified as having built heritage, significant natural areas or archaeological sites on them, does not preclude development happening but developers will have to negotiate additional hurdles.
The rate at which Hamilton’s neighbourhoods will change will also depend on market conditions and whether redeveloping a property makes financial sense.
‘‘That is why you see parts of the city developing before others because you will find that, possibly, it has got a higher land value and lower capital value improvement on it,’’ Davey said.
‘‘So it makes financial logic to remove the house, because it is of low value, and redevelop.’’