Welcome to Wellington in 30 years, when quiet suburban streets make way for six-storey apartment buildings
Friday, 7 August 2020
Quiet suburban streets are littered with six-storey apartment buildings, pre-1930s heritage homes have been knocked over in the central city. Welcome to Wellington in 30 years.
They were once quiet suburban streets, lined mostly with modest one and two-storey homes, a smattering of weekend walkers typifying the lazy neighbourhood feel.
But these days, about 30 years after tens of thousands of extra residents started filing into Wellington’s outskirts, the hilly backstreets of Johnsonville have a distinctly different vibe.
There are an extra 42,500 people living in Wellington’s outer suburbs in 2050, with the fostering of medium-density housing developments creating an additional 18,000 homes.
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Nowhere has this been more keenly felt than in the northern suburbs of Johnsonville and Tawa – prime real estate for developers to cash in on the new provisions.
Many homeowners have sold their properties to private developers, and numerous multi-storey apartment buildings – some six storeys – have sprung up.
The developers were spurred on by new rules allowing the construction of medium-density housing blocks anywhere within 10 minutes' walk of the Johnsonville town centre, and a similar distance from railway stations in Linden and Tawa.
In the Johnsonville town centre, eight-storey buildings have appeared along the main roads – many housing commercial tenants on the ground floor and residential tenants above.
In 2020, home ownership was higher than average in northern and western Johnsonville, but the area is now home to many more renters in multi-unit dwellings.
The housing intensification was all part of a plan to centralise population growth along main public transport lines and close to community amenities.
But the densification has also stretched up the hills as far as Cortina Ave in the west and Ōhāriu Rd in the north, and across the motorway to Chapman St in the east.
The days of places like Johnsonville, Tawa and Churton Park having much lower population densities than other parts of the city are long gone, with low-lying areas transformed and thousands more people now calling the northern suburbs home.
Along with places like Khandallah, Kelburn, and Brooklyn, these areas also presented lower natural hazard risks than other parts of the city – another drawcard for prospective developers.
The transformation was triggered by the city council’s response to a forecast housing shortage across Wellington back in 2020, and new rules introduced by the Government’s National Policy Statement [NPS] on Urban Development.
Under its spatial plan, the council has attempted to regulate the transition by allowing only well-designed, high-quality and appropriate housing developments.
But the transformation has still been stark.
The “sub-regional centre” of Johnsonville now lies at one end of a “growth spine” of development and investment – the other is in the east of the city in Kilbirnie, where eight-storey buildings have also been constructed in the town centre.
The council had to house the extra people somewhere – another 18,000 have also been crammed into the inner suburbs, and 14,000 have flocked to an expanded central city.
‘WHAT WELLINGTONIANS CAN EXPECT’
Wellington City Council place planning manager John McSweeney says the above description, based on the NPS, is what Wellingtonians can expect over the next 30 or so years.
“It’s pretty big. The guidelines in the NPS actually pushed density and height allowances in Johnsonville higher than what we were anticipating.
“I think out of all the outer residential areas, places like Johnsonville and Tawa will be the most attractive for development.”
In Kilbirnie, eight-storey buildings will be permitted in the commercial centre, mainly between Ross St and Childers Terrace, while three and four-storey housing developments will be permitted adjacent to the centre.
Areas north of Rongotai Rd and northeast of Kilbirnie Crescent will be excluded from development because of hazard risks.
The other outer suburbs identified by the council are Newlands, Ngaio, Crofton Downs, Karori, Hataitai, Miramar, Lyall Bay, and Island Bay.
The 15 outer suburbs currently house about 97,000 people in about 36,000 homes.
CENTRAL CITY
The catalyst for development in Wellington’s central city will centre around future public transport links, such as a proposed mass transit route through Te Aro.
While building heights of between 10 and 20 storeys are already permitted in and around Wellington’s “high city”, maximum heights will be lifted in many other parts of the central city.
The high city includes lower Willis St, Manners St, Boulcott St, The Terrace, Fearherston St, Lambton Quay, and Customhouse Quay.
Wellington’s central city is already home to about 20,000 people, 77 per cent of whom live in high-density housing.
But over the next 30 or so years, the CBD will need to accommodate another 18,000 people, requiring between 7900 and 8800 new homes.
“It is our biggest suburb, and it will remain our biggest suburb,” McSweeney says.
“There will be a lot more mixed-use development and a lot more people living and working in the central city.
“Areas like Te Aro will be regenerated. A lot of those buildings will get completely refitted and there will be a lot more development through there.”
The main driver for that will be an increase in maximum building heights in Te Aro to at least 10 storeys.
Areas like College St, Jessie St and Lorne St could be completely transformed, McSweeney says.
Te Aro encompasses most of the central city outside the “high city” area.
But there will also be an increase in building heights to between six and eight storeys along areas on the edge of the central city.
In Aro Valley, that includes Karo Dr and the southern ends of Willis St, Victoria St, and Taranaki St, as well as Webb St and some side streets like Hopper St and Torrens Terrace.
In Mt Victoria, the central city edge takes in most of Kent Terrace and parts of adjacent streets like Hania St, Home St, Lipman St, and the lower end of Marjoribanks St.
An extended central city boundary is also set to take in a large section of Adelaide Rd in Newtown – another part of the proposed mass transit route between Wellington Railway Station and the airport.
Building heights up to six storeys are proposed for Thorndon central city boundaries, including those in the vicinities of Hobson St, Hawkestone St, and Selwyn Terrace.
“We are moving the focus of development away from the waterfront,” McSweeney says.
But the plan will aim to preserve potential post-disaster gathering places such as Te Papa, Pipitea Marae, Victoria and Massey university campuses, Wellington Regional Hospital, and Civic Square.
“They are absolutely the priorities in terms of making sure they are retained.
“We need to make the city more resilient and more connected, and that ties in with the Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme, which aims to make the city more walkable, and provide more connections through the central city.”
INNER-SUBURBS
The council has struck a balance with the Government on plans for Wellington’s inner suburbs, with large sections of heritage and character areas to be somewhat protected.
But there are still substantial areas in which six-storey buildings will be permitted, especially in Newtown and along The Terrace, as well as in parts of Mt Cook, Aro Valley, and Mt Victoria.
Under the NPS, buildings of at least six storeys are required within a walkable distance of the city centre and high-frequency public transport stops.
But the policy provides an exception for areas with special characteristics where high-density housing would be inappropriate, and large parts of Wellington's inner suburbs fit into that category.
“A lot of the character in Mt Victoria and Thorndon still remains pretty much intact,” McSweeney says.
“But there will be more intensification and height as you approach the mass transit route.”
The inner suburbs will need to squeeze an extra 14,000 people into between 4100 and 5400 more homes by 2047, most of those to be terraced housing and low-rise apartment buildings – between two and four storeys.
Demolition protections will go for many pre-1930s buildings, unless they are in designated character “sub-areas”.
Maximum building heights of three storeys will be imposed in those areas, with four to six-storey developments allowed outside those areas.
In Thorndon, two and three-storey terrace housing will be prevalent along Tinakori Rd between Thorndon Quay and Glenmore St.
However, developers will be permitted to build terraced housing and low-scale apartment buildings up to four storeys in most of Mt Victoria, and six storeys on some suburb edges.
The same applies to Mt Cook and Aro Valley, with a large section between Bidwill St and Brooklyn Rd also in line for six-storey developments.
And further south, Newtown and Berhampore are in for a high concentration of six-storey buildings, especially along large sections of Rintoul St, Riddiford St, Daniel St, Owen St and Adelaide Rd.
The same applies to a large section of The Terrace between Boulcott St and Buller St.
One and two-storey detached and semi-detached infill housing will be permitted in Holloway Rd.
Across the city, the changes will be driven by private developers with renewed powers, with the city council monitoring progress and stepping in to build some social and affordable housing if necessary.
The government could use its Urban Development Authority powers to intervene if developments were not happening quickly enough.