‘Holus-bolus’ development
A push for fast-growing cities to embrace townhouses and apartment living will see swathes of Hamilton opened to infill housing.
And ratepayers could be left to pick up the bill, with unfettered development expected to increase the need for sizeable rate hikes.
The Government wants to cut planning red tape with the aim of speeding up the building of new dwellings and making homes more affordable. The National Party has backed the move.
But Hamilton politicians say loosening planning rules in favour of more medium-density housing could lead to ‘‘holus-bolus’’ development across the city.
The new rules, which come into effect from August next year, allow developers to build up to three homes of up to three storeys on most sites without the need for a resource consent.
Infill housing – where multiple homes are built on empty sections, or houses are put in backyards, or houses are completely removed and new structures built – tends to occur in older suburbs.
However, Hamilton deputy mayor Geoff Taylor said residents would be anxious about what could be built next door to them.
‘‘I do want things to be simpler for developers, but we need to take a targeted approach to growth,’’ Taylor said.
Infill housing already makes up more than half of new builds in Hamilton, and the city council has been working on plans identifying areas of the city best suited to housing intensification.
‘‘We were trying to give certainty to residents by saying these areas will have full-on high density while other areas will remain leafy suburbs,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘Now it will be holus-bolus development with a huge dose of steroids. You could live in Flagstaff and the house next door could disappear and then three storeys of apartments get built.’’
The Government has signalled there will be exemptions to the medium-density rules, such as areas that are prone to natural hazards or have heritage value.
The Hamilton City Council has budgeted $13.2 million for a review of its District Plan – regarded as the rulebook for the city’s development. Councillor Ryan Hamilton, who heads the council’s district plan committee, said the new planning rules would require a ‘‘complete pivot’’. Allowing intensification across the entire city was a ‘‘blunt, fill your boots’’ approach.
‘‘How does this approach, without any council engagement, help us deal with massive infrastructure deficits when the approach is completely blunt and not nuanced in any way to identified growth cells and logical infrastructure upgrades?’’ Hamilton asked.
The city council has previously indicated a preference for housing intensification in the central city.
It offers a 50 per cent remission on development contributions for all CBD builds under six storeys and a 100 per cent remission for builds of six storeys or more. Developers applying for the remissions have to engage with the Urban Design Advisory Panel and residential builds need to be LifeMark 4-star accredited.
Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate said the Urban Design Advisory Panel could be a key mechanism for the city to ensure new housing developments follow good urban design principles.
‘‘I’m 110 per cent behind the idea of us using the panel more. It needs to be bigger so developers have a choice about who they use, and it needs to be better resourced, so it can work with developers at a very early stage of their planning,’’ Southgate said.
This month, it was announced that two Hamilton City Council bids had made it to the next stage of the Government’s $1 billion Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, which aims to unlock more land for houses. The council’s shortlisted proposals include a $331.5m bid to upgrade transport and Three Waters infrastructure in the central city.
Southgate said it was crucial that the Government helped to fund core infrastructure needed for housing intensification.
‘‘Unless the Government gets alongside us with infrastructure funding, or gives us new funding tools off the balance sheet, we’ve only got two sources to get the money: developers or ratepayers.’’
Chris Allen, the city council’s general manager of development, said the new planning rules would undoubtedly result in an increase in housing intensification.
‘‘The impact of these new rules is a step-change in intensification, and it will need a step-change in infrastructure to match,’’ Allen said.
‘‘There’s a lot of merit in the type of land use and growth the Government is asking for. A compact city is a good response to climate change as it’s a lot easier to have public transport and biking and walking options. The challenge is enabling intensification through good-quality infrastructure.’’
Atlas Property owner Andrew Yeoman said the Government’s move to streamline the consenting process made a lot of sense. The changes would free up the council’s planning staff to process larger developments.
The council’s District Plan had enough tools to ensure good design outcomes, Yeoman said. ‘‘When you apply for building consent, your consent still goes through to the resource consent team to double check it against the District Plan . . . And if you are building three homes to subdivide and sell, rather than retain the homes as a rental portfolio, you’ll still need to apply for a subdivision consent.
‘‘And you will still need engineering planning approval as well.’’
University of Waikato environmental planning professor Iain White said the Government’s upcoming reform of the Resource Management Act was likely to focus on quality urban environments.
Like Southgate, White said the Urban Design Advisory Panel could play a pivotal role in ensuring housing intensification was done right.
‘‘If you look around Hamilton, particularly in the city centre, there are some really nice builds,’’ he said.