New rules ‘swallowing a dead rat’
Planning rules put the council in a difficult position
New planning rules have been adopted in the Western Bay of Plenty, but one councillor has likened them to “swallowing a dead rat”. The new rules allow for greater housing density in O¯ mokoroa and Te Puke.
If the council didn’t adopt the rules, it risked losing funding for an essential highway roundabout.
The Western Bay of Plenty District Council adopted the intensification planning rules at an extraordinary council meeting last Wednesday.
The council chose not to adopt the rules in February over concerns the infrastructure wasn’t there to support increased housing.
A workshop was held and the risks the council faced if the planning rules weren’t adopted were explained.
One of these risks was the loss of $46.8 in funding from Ka¯inga Ora for road upgrades and a roundabout at the intersection of State Highway 2 and O¯ mokoroa Rd, according to workshop notes.
The roundabout was needed to open up land in O¯ mokoroa for housing and also as a safer entrance to SH2.
At Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Rodney Joyce said: “Today we have to swallow a dead rat, it’s just a question of which rodent we choose.”
It was a choice of rejecting some “pretty awful” planning rules imposed by the Government and risk infrastructure funding, or adopting them and hoping they didn’t do “too much damage” before they could be changed, he said.
“The biggest risk here in my mind is that very necessary roundabout. We need it, we need it for safety.”
Joyce said the rat he had chosen was to adopt the planning rules as recommended by staff.
Councillor Anne Henry said they were “basically between a rock and a hard place”.
“We don’t really have any choice in this matter.”
The Government’s medium-density residential standards (MDRS) mean Western Bay’s urban areas of Omokoroa ¯ and Te Puke are earmarked for greater housing intensification.
These areas are projected to have populations over 10,000 in coming years.
The nine standards include allowing three homes on a site, houses up to 11 metres high, half of a site can be buildings, and at least 20sq m of outdoor space must be available.
Homes that meet the standards do not require resource consents but will need building consents.
The previous Government made the standards mandatory. However, the new Government said councils can opt into the rules, although the legislation supporting mandatory rules remains in place.
The council formed an independent hearing panel to hear submissions on this proposal - Plan Change 92 Enabling Housing Supply - in September 2023, with recommendations released in January.
The recommendations are for planning zones and rules in response to submissions.
They must be accepted by the council and if rejected the decision about them is placed in the hands of the Environment Minister.
The council chose to reject four recommendations about indoor railway noise and vibrations, not rezoning land in O¯ mokoroa industrial and not rezoning other private O¯ mokoroa land as natural open space.
The council recommended zoning land between Francis Rd and Omokoroa ¯ Rd light industrial but not enable coolstores to be built.
It also wanted the other land rezoned as open space, not future urban as recommended by the panel.
Councillor Murray Grainger said the intensification rules shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone because 22 years ago plans were made for O¯ mokoroa with growth projections of more than 10,000 people.
“Our region is desperately short of houses. We need to provide more land for housing so then the question is housing density.”
He said the council couldn’t provide homes for 30,000 people in O¯ mokoroa on quarter-acre sections, so density was necessary but also a legal requirement.
Mayor James Denyer said the inevitable loss of funding for the roundabout and the “lack of actual choice” around the standards made the decision more straightforward than it had seemed at the previous meeting.
“This development is happening anyway. This plan change puts in place essential parameters to control that and lead to better development.”
Plan Change 92 will be publicly notified and come into effect on March 13.