Plan’s housing appeals to be given priority

THE Environment Court has been asked to prioritise appeals relating to housing capacity in Dunedin’s new district plan, so a looming housing shortfall can be addressed.

More than 80 appeals have been made on the Dunedin City Council’s second generation plan (2GP), which was released in December.

All appeals are prioritised and considered by the court.

The council has asked for appeals relating to policies on housing capacity, land supply and residential development in rural areas to be considered first.

A housing capacity report found the city will be short 1000 houses by 2028 if more land is not made available for development.

The council was now required to develop options to increase the city’s housing stock within 12 months.

Council city development manager Anna Johnson said if those appeals were settled first the council would better placed to address the predicted shortfall.

There were no requests to fasttrack appeals on rezoning specific areas, Dr Johnson said.

‘‘It’s important to understand where those criteria are going to end up in order to then determine the appropriate zoning for a particular site.’’

There were about 10 appeals on those particular sections of the 2GP and they ranged from people seeking stricter policies and less development to others seeking less strict policies and more resi dential development, she said.

Those appeal decisions would help inform an intended plan change which would increase housing.

By considering both at the same time, the council could develop more options for increasing the amount of residential land.

‘‘The facts are there is a need to find more capacity and that capacity could either be through new residential land or upzoning land to allow high density development,’’ Dr Johnson said.