Proposal aims to bring affordable housing to Nelson's central city

Monday, 16 August 2021

An aerial view of the proposed site at Achilles Ave at the bottom of the photo. (File photo)

A council land sale proposal could result in a combination of up to 175 social and affordable homes built in the city centre.

At an upcoming meeting on August 26, the Nelson City Council will consult the public about a plan to sell council-owned land to government housing agency Kāinga Ora for a potential new housing development.

The land in question includes two sites, one from 69 to 101 Achilles St, along with 42 Rutherford St.

Kāinga Ora engagement and partnerships manager Lorellin Syben said the organisation was thrilled to be working with council, and supported council going out to the public for feedback.

However, she stressed that Kāinga Ora was yet to make a final decision on whether to purchase either site – and would still need to complete its due diligence should council decide to sell the land.

* Kāinga Ora wants to build high-rise social housing apartments in Whangārei CBD

* Kāinga Ora investigating four sites for 'intervention' in Nelson housing market

The second proposed site is at 42 Rutherford St, currently occupied by Zumo Coffee.

The two projects would be viewed as a mixed-use concept, which could range from one-bedroom through to three-bedroom homes.

Less than 50 per cent of the 175 properties would be social housing, with the remainder providing affordable housing.

The site at Achilles Ave could accommodate 125 homes, with the site on Rutherford St having the potential for 50.

These buildings could range between five and eight storeys, while the ground floor of the buildings would be set aside for commercial or community activities.

Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said the proposal was a response to the increasing unaffordability of housing in Nelson, and public feedback asking council to take action.

Concept images of Bridge St including aspects from the council's spatial plan and potential Kāinga Ora housing projects.

'Hundreds of submissions to our Long Term Plan 2021/31 supported housing as a priority and this is an important step towards achieving that goal.

'Kāinga Ora are well-placed to provide the affordable housing Nelson requires and they are keen to partner with us. The economies of scale that they can bring to the table are important in an economy where construction costs are rising rapidly.”

Deputy Mayor Judene Edgar said the proposal fit into the vision for the upcoming city centre spatial plan (Te Ara ō Whakatū), to transform the city centre into a more lively and energetic space.

Edgar said while at the moment there were fewer than 100 people living in the city centre, the goal of the spatial plan was to grow that to around 2000.

“We know the status quo isn’t going to work into the future, and we know there’s already tensions about our status quo.

“We need to be thinking ahead both today and into the future – intensification and inner-city living is a key deliverable element of that as well.“

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said with the scale of Nelson’s housing challenges having built up over decades, there was no “silver bullet” to resolve the issue.

“At central government level there are things we can do and have been doing … we need developments in Nelson and Tasman that provide for affordability.”

Boyack said she wanted to hear from the community whether this was the type of development needed in the city centre.

“We need supply, but it needs to be the right kind of supply – we need to know what people want.”

Reese said while she was anticipating there would be a reaction about the uncertainty of what social and affordable housing would mean for the city centre – her previous experience of council selling land for social housing on Brook St showed it could work.

“I’m really glad [we did that] because what we've done is create warm dry homes and actually a great neighbourhood. I don’t think there will be anyone on Brook St who has reservations about neighbours living in Nelson Tasman Housing Trust homes.

”[In this proposal] both partners want this to be a very high-quality build and one that fits well into the city centre – making sure the homes that are built provide the choices Nelsonians need.”

Consultation on the proposal will open from August 30, along with consultation on the city’s Spatial Plan (Te Ara ō Whakatū) which will be coming out at the same time.

Feedback can be given at shape.nelson.govt.nz/kainga-ora-consultation from 30 August, or via a hard copy of the consultation document from Council's Customer Service Centre and public libraries.