Tackling the housing shortage problem
More homes will be a win for all Ka¯ piti, writes district councillor and housing portfolio holder Rob McCann
Everyone deserves an affordable, safe, warm home but right now Ka¯ piti is experiencing its worst housing shortage in living memory — not just for homeowners, but renters too.
Homelessness doesn’t just affect those without a roof over their heads. It creates inequity that should make all of us less comfortable and our district a less desirable place to live.
The housing shortage is a national problem, but local bodies have a key role in some of the solutions. We control the rule book for urban development and land use in our area — the District Plan. Central government recognises its value as tool to tackle housing supply, so has introduced new rules that require us to make changes to enable more medium density housing and taller buildings in our metropolitan, town and local centres, and around rail corridors.
These rules promoting intensification are enshrined in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development and recent amendments to the Resource Management Act.
Together, they have the potential to change what our district looks like because they require us to allow up to three dwellings of up to three storeys high in residential areas without a resource consent.
We must also enable higher buildings in the city, town and local centres to allow for apartments and multi-storey townhouse complexes.
Intensification will change the way we live.
Over the decades in Ka¯ piti people have built retirement, family, and holiday homes with large yards for gardens and kids. This must start changing but doesn’t mean it’s bad — communities are about people, not buildings. Compact urban design means people live differently. They use the parks and cafes as common outdoor spaces. Communities are walkable and good public transport reduces the need for cars to get around, which is good for reducing our carbon emissions.
To meet the Government’s requirements and respond to our district’s own housing needs, council is now consulting on draft Plan Change 2 that will enable more intensive housing. Importantly, the draft plan change aligns closely with our newly adopted growth strategy Te Tupu Pai — Growing Well.
The strategy was developed with the new government direction in mind and the knowledge that we will need 16,200 more homes by 2051 to accommodate a projected population increase of about 56 per cent.
The growth strategy was based on extensive community feedback on how residents would like to see our community grow. People have already accepted that we need to grow up as well as out, and many understand it’s no longer tenable for precincts like the Waikanae Garden Area and beach communities to have their ‘special character’ set in amber in the District Plan.
They were introduced with the best of intentions, but the ‘special character’ provisions have had a perverse impact on housing affordability in our district and the type of housing we have encouraged. Instead of allowing the right type of house to be built in the right area according to need or demand, our ‘special character’ precincts have contributed to limiting the housing supply and the boom in house prices of more than 100 per cent in the past five years in some areas.
A lack of footpaths might contribute to an abstract and subjective ‘beachy vibe’, but it does nothing for walkability and safety.
Change won’t be guaranteed, only ‘enabled’. It won’t be instant or unfettered. A resource consent is still needed for developments which breach other standards like site coverage, or which have inadequate infrastructure servicing, and any subdivision that creates new allotments. The draft plan change keeps protections in place for things we care about, such as historic heritage, notable trees, and significant indigenous vegetation. And there’ll be guidance to promote good urban design and sustainable housing.
We can’t change the Government’s direction to enable more housing. But the rest of the plan change will put in place the rules and policies that guide its development so we want to hear from our community on how you think these will work in practice. We’ll consider the feedback, and then to meet RMA process requirements we will consult again mid-year on the “proposed” version of the plan.
Read the draft plan change and have your say at kapiticoast.govt.nz/districtplan by 5pm, Monday May 2.