Balanced housing approach needed
OPINION: One of the reasons I’m a local councillor is because I’m passionate aboutwhat our city looks and feels like.
I want us to find the balance between building safe and engaging spaces our communities can use, with the need to increase our housing supply to alleviate the housing crisis we face in Lower Hutt.
It’s a tough job, but it’s one that everyone at the council table wants to achieve.
The key document that lets us tackle this challenge, by guiding the way we design and build our city, is the District Plan.
This is council’s rulebook for residential development, subdivision of land, the height and location of buildings, commercial and industrial developments, heritage, noise, and a whole lot more.
While we are in the process of reviewing our District Plan, the Government has thrown a spanner into the works.
The Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters Amendment Act – which allows three-storey housing in most residential areas without consent and six storey housing in areas within walking distance of train stations and commercial areas – means the council’s ability to control the level of development is limited. I agree that threestorey housing is an effective tool to assisting the housing crisis. We absolutely need to increase supply to get families out of cars, garages, and overcrowded rooms and into warm, dry homes.
However, I disagree with the blanket approach to enforcing this across most of our city.
Intensification works best in our metropolitan areas – think Jackson Street, Hutt Central, the CBD – because they’re close to what we need most: public transport, supermarkets, healthcare, and services we need in our day-to-day lives.
In contrast, I don’t think the depths of Stokes Valley, Wainuiomata, or Eastbourne are the best places for intensification.
With other Government changes meaning developers aren’t required to provide car parks for residential developments anymore, we risk spreading growth and adding to traffic congestion rather than concentrating growth in and around our metro centres.
What’s really frustrating is our tailored approach to addressing housing issues in the Hutt with Plan Change 43 has doubled our consents from 550 in 2020 to 1142 in 2021, and it did so by focusing on areas that are close to necessities.
And it’s hard to miss – all over the city there are new multi-unit developments which are inevitably going to change how our city functions. This is not a criticism, but more a reflection that we need to be considered in the waywe go about changing the look and feel of Lower Hutt so we can do so positively and constructively.
So, while our hands are tied with some of these major changes from government, there are still important aspects for our District Plan up for discussion when we go out for consultation later this month.
We need your help to define where the ‘‘walkable catchments’’ are – deciding what is considered a ‘‘walkable’’ distance from the Hutt CBD, Petone and train stations – so that we have a better concentration closer to the city for three storey-plus residential units.
In addition, we want your feedback on excluding building heights and density in areas that qualify, like natural hazards, outstanding natural features and historic heritage.
The changes we have to make will influence our city’s looks and feel for the next 50 years.