Wellington City Council rejects plan to remove height restrictions for central city buildings
Thursday, 24 June 2021
Wellington city councillors have overturned a proposal to remove height restrictions on new central city housing buildings during a marathon vote on its spatial plan.
Councillors also agreed during the late-night vote on Thursday to scrap plans to extend protected character areas by almost half, following fierce debate about the merits of preserving character over creating space for new homes.
The spatial plan is the council’s proposed blueprint to enable medium and high-density housing developments across the city to accommodate up to 80,000 new residents over the next 30 years.
Councillors also agreed to change the “walkable catchments” within which six-storey-plus buildings would be permitted.
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Those catchments are now within 10 minutes of all railway stations, instead of five, and within 15 minutes of the central city boundary, instead of 10.
The decision to reinstate central city building height limits came following an amendment from councillor Nicola Young.
It means existing restrictions of between 8 and 28 storeys will be retained, A six-storey minimum building height will be introduced.
Young said she was concerned removing height restrictions would affect the standard of future central city housing.
“I am concerned about the fact that unlimited building heights could lead to irresponsible building developments.”
Young sparked controversy at the meeting when she also suggested the council should add to its list of protected character areas in the inner-city suburbs.
The council has slashed protected areas by 71 per cent to open up room for more development, but Young proposed including other parts of Mt Victoria, Thorndon, Mt Cook, Aro Valley, and The Terrace.
“They form a really significant streetscape, and we have to think about what our city looks like,” she said.
Councillor Tamatha Paul described Young’s proposal as “just nuts”.
“This is a huge list to add to the already innumerable barriers to building houses in Wellington.
“There is not enough stock in the rental market. We are scrapping over this disgusting, feral housing stock, and you want to protect more of it?”
Up to 32,000 people are expected to move to the central and inner city in the next 30 years, with another 42,500 expected to move to the outer suburbs.
Six-storey-plus developments have been proposed for large parts of many outer suburbs, with developments up to eight storeys proposed for the Johnsonville and Kilbirnie town centres.
The spatial plan will be included in the council’s draft district plan, which is scheduled to be released for initial public feedback later this year and finalised by 2024.