Palmerston North growing in, growing up and growing out
From long-held ambitions for a second bridge over the Manawatū River to an emerging prospect of housing at Massey University’s Turitea campus, Palmerston North residents are being asked for their thoughts about the city’s growth.
The city council, with Horizons Regional Council, has been working on a future development strategy to guide Palmerston North for the next three decades, and is looking for public submissions from now until May 5. City council chief planning officer David Murphy said the draft strategy pulled together a lot of planning work that was already under way, like rezoning land for housing and industry.
“It covers plans to expand the city to provide for housing and industrial use over the next 30 years, including areas like
Aokautere, Kākātangiata to the southwest of the city and Te Utanganui, Central New Zealand Distribution hub to extend our current industrial zone to the northeast.”
Murphy said having a cohesive strategy for the whole city would help protect valuable agricultural land and avoid building on areas of risk.
With the city’s population forecast to increase from 94,400 today to 117,280 by 2054, there would be pressure to provide enough houses, and to ensure the services were in place to support them and the city’s industrial activity.
The future development strategy is a piece of work required by the Government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development. It is based around themes of growing in, growing up, and growing out.
“Growing in” involves using space within the existing urban environment to fit in more housing, allowing homes to be built closer together, and “growing up” would allow more three-storey homes in parts of the city. More detail on that work was covered in the medium density residential zone proposals expected to go out for formal consultation later in 2024.
The council was also working on plans for residential development at Roxburgh Cres, and possibly, the future release of its Albert St depot site for housing.
A new aspect signalled in the draft strategy was the possibility that Massey University’s review of underutilised land at Turitea might become free for housing growth.
“Growing out” involved planned greenfield housing to the southwest of the city and at Ashhurst, and the 288 hectare industrial zone extension around the proposed KiwiRail freight yards between the airport and Bunnythorpe.
The strategy also explored the range of services and improvements that would be needed to support both higher-density urban development and the extensions to residential and industrial growth areas.
A key consideration would be transport, ensuring the safe and efficient travel of people and freight around the city. That planning work was covered by the Palmerston North Integrated Network Initiative, a series of projects to improve intersections and key routes, and ultimately, the regional freight ring road connected to a downstream road bridge over the Manawatū River.
Consultation on the strategy is running at much the same time as that on the city’s draft long-term plan. While the strategy was focused on planning, the long-term plan was more about how the plans would be paid for and delivered.
Submissions on the strategy would be heard by a joint panel of city and Horizons councillors on May 13.