The once-rural street swallowed by sprawl

Hundred-year-old villas and mature trees line much of Blenheim’s ‘‘idyllic’’ Severne St, where residential suburbs give way to the great expanse of vineyards.

But the peaceful, semi-rural neighbourhood has room for another 128 sections, according to planners at the Marlborough District Council.

Gwyneth Lowe says that in her 47 years living on Severne St, the area has been relatively unchanged while other parts of Blenheim have intensified with ‘‘infill’’, the subdivision of a large section into a few smaller ones.

In fact, the main change visible from Lowe’s 108-year-old house was her trees getting taller, she said.

‘‘I’ve come to realise it’s quite an oasis. I’m still here rattling around in my big old house, and it’s quite idyllic, really.’’

The town boundary was once down the middle of Severne St’s top end, with farms on either side of the southern end. But under the Marlborough District Council’s new Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan, the suburban boundary had crept west past Severne St, and south of adjacent David St to the Yelverton Stream.

That meant the area was classified as Urban Residential Zone 3, with rules providing for low-density urban building, such as houses being able to take up a maximum 30 per cent of the property, rather than the rural maximum of 15 per cent. Buildings could still be 10 metres tall, rather than 7.5m like in Urban Residential Zones 1 and 2.

Lowe said a few large sections on her street had already been subdivided, but there were quite a few large undeveloped blocks.

‘‘It’s still a nice rural area here, and because there’s still grapes behind us, it does still have a rural outlook.

‘‘So it will be interesting to see what effect any infill will have.

‘‘They’ll certainly have to make sure there’s the infrastructure for it . . . Infill can be pretty intensive, and it will put extra pressure on the pipes.’’

Council chief executive Mark Wheeler said the council had commissioned a report to check whether new stormwater pipes were needed, in order to ready the land for development.

Undeveloped land on Severne St and David St could provide another 128 sections for new houses, using the average of 10 lots per hectare. But the existing pipes might not have the capacity to cope with that many extra households, Wheeler said.

The Severne St area made up part of the council’s estimate that there were more than 1900 sections that could be developed on residentially zoned land in Blenheim, plus another 900 sections that could be produced through infill, assuming landowners were prepared to sell and developers prepared to buy.

Wheeler wrote in a submission on the council’s Longterm Plan that housing supply and affordability were worsening in Marlborough, as well as nationally, and the council’s main responsibility in the housing sector was to ensure there was enough land zoned for residential development, and to make sure it was connected to services.

The council was still catching up on a backlog of infrastructure work to connect newly zoned land to services, such as the major northwest sewer project.

A shortage of consultants and workers over the past several years was the main cause for delays, Wheeler said.

‘‘There’s also a lot of interest in opening up potential new zones, but that’s a quantum step forward,’’ he said.

‘‘We will get to a point where we think we need to rezone more land ... Landowners are not always willing to develop when there’s demand.

‘‘So we need to consider that as well – whether we need to have even more land available than we thought.’’

Many of Blenheim’s new sections were being added at the Wai-iti subdivision on Alabama Rd, which would add 133 lots in total, and Boulevard Park on Taylor had another 33 lots on the way. Rose Manor could add another 52 lots once it was connected to the new northwest sewer early next year.

Stormwater and sewerage work was also under way for the Clifford/marris block, west of Battys Rd, which had room for about 315 sections at 10 lots per hectare. A roundabout would soon be completed at the intersection of Battys Rd, Richardson Ave and New Renwick Rd.

The North West Growth Zone had room for 528 lots, though the only major development at present was the Summerset Lifestyle Village, which was still awaiting consent.

The public submissions period on Marlborough’s Long-term Plan ended on May 6.

Councillors will hear inperson submissions from June 1 to 3 and will consider feedback on June 8, before adopting the plan on June 24.