New density rules for major cities could enable 'poor quality urban design'
Tuesday, 2 August 2022
Sweeping new housing density rules run the risk of enabling poor quality urban design, a city planner grappling with the issue in Hamilton warns.
Mark Davey’s frank comments come ahead of a hui on Thursday where a city council committee is due to recommend to the full council that the intensification-related Plan Change 12 (PC12) goes out for public consultation this month.
PC12 provides for higher housing densities but creates different rules for various areas, including the central city and surrounds, around suburban centres and for the rest of the city.
On whether the new liberal rules created the risk of a cluttered urban environment, Davey said they did but it was hard to avoid given the nature of the new law directing intensification, which also covers Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
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“There’s a risk of poor quality urban design outcomes.”
Davey said Hamiltonians can tend to expect that ‘normal’ is looking out the window to see a single home on a large site. But PC12’s facilitation of further intensification would change that view over time.
“What this is doing is fundamentally changing what can be expected in their street or their suburb,” said Davey.
While the current policy allowing duplexes had already changed things “this will speed that up”.
“The ability to make the new normal or the new urban environment attractive is being eroded from tier one metro councils, such as Hamilton.”
On whether this was a direct criticism of Government policy, Davey said: “It’s a one size fits all approach to managing urban development which takes away the rights from individual communities to have a meaningful say on how their cities look.”
PC12 is the draft response to a recent Resource Management Act amendment.
The amendment provided for new provisions such as not needing a resource consent to have up to three living units up to three storeys high on a section.
Davey said that “three and three” aspect of things couldn’t really be controlled now but PC12 was able to control even higher densities and heights of buildings.
And the need to protect the Waikato River from the effects of development, in particular, gave the council leverage over how the new rules were implemented.
It enabled “a nuanced or Hamilton-specific response” to the new rules that was being called “eco-density”.
Measures such as more landscaping, trees, rainwater tanks, gully restoration and provision for ground which helped soak up water, were provided for in PC12.
Financial contributions from developers would be levied to help offset the environmental impacts of developments. This was not expected to bump up house prices as they would be offset by savings on resource consent fees.
Asked what would be the alternative to the Government’s methods, Davey suggested a more “pragmatic” approach to promoting intensification could deliver better outcomes in terms of increasing housing stock, protecting the environment and having affordable infrastructure.
While PC12 had some measures that suited Hamilton, it would have been better for the city’s autonomy to have an even more locally driven and enabled approach to development, Davey said.
PC12 was entirely separate from a recent decision by a council committee to endorse a goal of having 70% of new housing in Hamilton coming from intensification, compared to around 50% now.
Public hearings on PC12 are due next year, with the new policy due to be operative in 2024.