Gordon Wilson Flats should not stay on heritage list, council decides

Thursday, 14 March 2024

Larger areas of upzoning, smaller character areas, and the removal of a heritage listing from the Gordon Wilson Flats have all been voted through by the council.

The decisions were all part of a significant council meeting where councillors vote on the shape of the District Plan for decades to come.

The Wellington City Council voted to upzone around the stops on the Johnsonville train line and pare back the city’s protected character areas in order to allow more housing density. The decisions were not popular with all, with councillor Diane Calvert describing her colleagues as “upzoning zealots”.

At the start of the meeting, mayor Tory Whanau, who is chairing, acknowledged what a “serious decision” the council had to make today. The council moved through their first item, about Regional Water Services Delivery, at a very fast pace to get to the housing debate.

In her speech introducing the plan she signalled she would be supporting amendments that called for more density and did not agree with the panel’s recommendations. If residents wanted to see the city thrive, the council needed to zone for more housing to increase affordability, Whanau said.

“Do we try and keep Wellington the way that it used to be? Or do we embrace change, embrace being a modern city, embrace the next generation? For me, the choice is simple.”

All amendments which have been voted through will go to Housing Minister Chris Bishop for the final decision – who has indicated he blames restrictive zoning rules for contributing to the city’s housing crisis.

Catch up below on how the meeting unfolded.

And it’s over

After all that, it was a speedy meeting, finishing well before the 5pm mark.

Councillors have voted through the largely uncontroversial final paper, including a motion to make apartment and town house developments absorb more storm water through gardens and absorbent materials.

Councillors used the meeting’s final speaking slots to reflect on the plan they had developed.

“Minister Bishop, over to you,” said councillor Ben McNulty. He believed the council had landed on a “bloody good” plan through their amendments.

It was a “fantastic day for housing”, said Nīkau Wi Neera. The council had not rejected the Independent Hearings Panel recommendations, of which there were 4000 pages. The amendments made had been based on evidence, he said.

John Apanowicz said residents had been calling for the council to make it easier to build housing for years.

“I've built two houses and I've worked with the District Plans and it is very difficult …. It's a very intensive process. So for us to make it as smooth as possible for people to be able to build, that’s quite a significant thing.”

Other councillors were less enamoured by the plan for upzoning.

“The reality is that the panel recommendations embody [a balanced] approach far more than the upzoning zealots with no real experience of building strong communities,” said Diane Calvert.

By throwing the decisions to the Minister of Housing, Chris Bishop, Calvert said the city was “losing control” of the plan and it highlighted the council’s “lack of credibility”. (Any changes to panel recommendations have to go to the Minister as a matter of law.)

“Whether I agree or not, I believe it has been a fair and democratic process,” said Sarah Free. There was tension between people who wanted to move forward quickly and those who did not, but that was a healthy tension.

The debate had been about density, and the “red-green agenda” had led to a number of dense amendments, said Tony Randle.

During the last fifteen years density already been the direction, he believed, while the city had become more unaffordable.

“Density is not working in Wellington. … Until we get greenfields into the mix we will never have affordable housing.”

Find all the amendments and debate below.

Affordable housing requirement voted down

The final amendment has failed. Iona Pannett moved a motion to ask council staff to look into how the planning process could fund more affordable housing development.

“I'm bringing this because I do not believe that developers will build the people who need affordable housing, affordable housing. They are interested most in profit, that's their job,” said Pannett.

The measures she wanted the council to investigate included a contestable fund for affordable housing, through a higher levy on new development.

“I would file [the amendments] under things that sound good but really aren’t, and work we’ve already done but rejected,” said Rebecca Matthews, who was not in support.

“There are concerns that it discourages [new housing].”

Ben McNulty described the inclusionary zoning proposal as a “meritorious tax” which would discourage new development in Wellington, especially in comparison to the rest of the region which did not require such a levy for housing.

“Inclusionary zoning doesn’t and hasn’t worked. … It would put Wellington in an even worse position in terms of catching up on housing.”

Sarah Free said it was tinkering around the edges, and would distract council staff time from the fundamental work on housing.

Ten heritage listings removed ‒ including Gordon Wilson

The Miramar gas tank, Gordon Wilson Flats and other contentious heritage listings have all been removed from the heritage list after an amendment from councillor Ben McNulty.

These are the buildings up for removal: Gordon Wilson Flats, former California Gardens oil tank, Emeny House, Kahn House, Olympus Apartments, Wharenui Apartments, Robert Stout Building, Primitive Church, Masonic Hall and Star of the Sea.

All listings were in situations where the building owner disagreed with the heritage listing and wanted to see it removed.

“So be clear where something was proposed for heritage listing, and it was supported by the property owners or there wasn’t any opposition in the community, we're not touching it,” McNulty said.

Iona Pannett was mainly opposed to the removal of heritage listings, especially on Gordon Wilson Flats where she had previously lived and found it to be an “absolutely brilliant” place to live. “It can be saved, it would be fantastic student housing.”

Even Pannett voted to remove the listing from WingNut Productions’ gas tank, formerly Miramar’s California Garden Centre.

Sarah Free said the “cruel reality” of Gordon Wilson was that it was mouldering away, not being used as housing. After soul-searching she had decided to support the amendment to remove its heritage listing.

Nicola Young, normally an advocate for heritage, would also support removing the listing from Gordon Wilson, Wharenui and the Miramar gas tank.

“We have ten owners here saying please don’t list our buildings. Because it’s a problem, it’s not a solution,” said McNulty.

Upzoning allowed in suburbs along the Johnsonville train line

The narrow, windy single-track Johnsonville train line will determine whether upzoning is allowed near stops in the hilly suburbs including Ngaio and Khandallah.

Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera will make an amendment to define it as a “rapid transit service”, which the Independent Hearings Panel had recommended against.

The amendment has passed with the support of ten committee members, though several thought the train was too unreliable and slow for dense housing.

Wi Neera would also move that the upzoned areas around the “rapid transit stops” should take effect within ten minutes of walking distance rather than five minutes.

His amendments would recognise the appropriate status of the Johnsonville line and the Kāpiti line, as well as the number of commuters who used the “waiwai express” to get to the train.

Ray Chung said the train, with its single track, would be “very expensive” to upgrade and there was little prospect of its frequency and reliability being increased.

Rebecca Matthews said Chung was wrong, and it was a “circular argument” to say you couldn’t improve transport, therefore you couldn’t upzone.

Ministry for the Environment advice on the policy had specifically identified Wellington’s train lines, including Johnsonville, as examples of rapid transit. “It doesn’t mean it’s a bullet train, it means you can upzone,” Matthews said.

Diane Calvert said she wished “the silliness would stop with us all trying to pretend we’re resource management experts”. The Johnsonville line was a “toy railway line” in comparison with the other lines in Wellington.

Tony Randle, a local councillor in the Takapū-Northern ward, said the train line had a similar capacity to a “pretty good bus service” and it was wishful thinking to designate it rapid transit.

It was a recipe for bad development and pepper pot housing to zone the suburbs along the line for housing. “We shouldn’t burden the area serviced by a good bus service with high density housing,” Randle said.

Kilbirnie upzoning will be delayed

The meeting has returned from a lunch break. Sarah Free is making an amendment to delay upzoning of Kilbirnie until residents have been consulted ‒ it was not initially upzoned, but added in by commissioners after hazard predictions about sea level rise were changed.

“There's been a little bit of a failure of the process in relation to the community having any input at all on fine tuning, what they're going to get in their area,” Free said.

Kilbirnie residents had never been aware their suburb could be upzoned, and did not show up to the hearings. The suburb could be upzoned later on in the District Plan process under Free’s amendment, after residents were able to share their views.

The amendment passed unanimously.

Successful amendments around train lines:

• Upzoning to six storeys within a ten minutes’ walk of all Johnsonville line stops

• Upzoning to six storeys within a ten minutes’ walk of specific Kāpiti line stops (Takapū Rd, Redwood and Linden)

Character areas pared back

Matthews, who calls herself the “oldest YIMBY in town”, moved the most sweeping amendments, which include dialling back character areas after the Independent Hearings Panel recommended they should increase in size.

Character areas are protected suburbs like Mt Victoria and Newtown, where on many streets, housing density is limited to stay in keeping with the existing villas ‒ effectively meaning apartments and townhouses are very rare in inner-city suburbs. Now that will change, after all of Matthews’ amendments were successful.

The debate on these amendments has split into two sides: independent councillors who think the Independent Hearings Panel recommendations should be respected, and Labour-Green councillors who believe more upzoning is needed to address the housing crisis.

Matthews will also move to increase the size of walkable catchments – the radius where upzoning is allowed near town centres ‒ from 10 minutes of walking to 15.

“So many institutions and individuals seem unable or unwilling to lift our gaze beyond our white knuckled grasp, clinging to what we already have, even when what we have when it comes to housing is woefully inadequate for so many people,” she said, introducing her amendments.

“Wellington city can enable more housing choices, more affordable options and more housing types across the city and we are obligated to do so morally and legally. Better things, than many of the IHP recommendations, are possible.'

Deputy mayor Laurie Foon has expressed her support for including Adelaide Rd in the centre city zone, saying it was one of the best blank canvases for housing in the city.

Ray Chung said he did not support the amendments, because the Independent Hearings Panel had considered “everything objectively”.

“Wellington is already a dense city by Australasian stands and the [panel] recommendations is actually a very significant upzoning proposal already,” Chung said.

Iona Pannett, who lives in Mt Victoria, said the suburb had been criticised as a “bastion of privilege” when that was not the case. Development was happening, but new apartments were only for the “very, very wealthy”.

The best way to get affordable housing was to make sure the city didn’t gentrify, rather than zoning for more housing in expensive areas.

“Just changing the plan isn’t going to make it cheaper,” Pannett said.

“No-one here is saying zoning is going to do it all,” said councillor Ben McNulty. And if zoning wasn’t going to lead to more housing, then why not enable it, he asked.

“These areas are already gentrified. When me and my wife on two incomes tried to find a house five years ago … Johnsonville wasn’t necessarily our first choice.”

Tim Brown and Tony Randle have also suggested the council needs to stick to the recommendations from the panel, with Brown saying the amendments would be a “large poke in the eye” to submitters who showed up to the hearings on the plan.

Diane Calvert, normally a supporter of character areas, was absent from the vote on these issues due to personal reasons.

Successful amendments for upzoning:

• Adelaide Rd zoned as city centre

• Walkable catchment around city centre expanded to 15 minutes

• Character precincts reduced to proposed District Plan area

More amendments coming up

Amendments being put forward by councillors include removing the Gordon Wilson Flats from the heritage list and adding the Johnsonville train line back in as a rapid transit line, meaning upzoning would be allowed in suburbs including Ngaio and Khandallah.

There are about 50 amendments in total. Most would allow more upzoning, aside from two amendments from Sarah Free and Iona Pannett which are focused on delaying intensification in Kilbirnie and requiring affordable housing minimums.

According to a paper circulated at the meeting, several of the amendments brought by councillors are out of alignment with recommendations from council staff ‒ in particular, Ben McNulty’s change to remove some heritage listings and Rebecca Matthews’ amendment for smaller character areas.

What’s a District Plan?

The District Plan, a set of rules determining what housing can be built where, will be voted on by the council today. This part of the plan is related to housing intensification – where apartments and townhouses can be built on previously single house sections.

Chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts told the council the District Plan was a very significant decision.

“I think there's going to be very few votes in your time on council that will have such a massive and lasting consequence on the city and arguably for a generation, so good luck with that.”

The choice is between keeping protected character areas and low rise housing, or upzoning to build more apartments and townhouses for people who want to live in the city.

There has been a long process to get to this meeting, beginning with reports commissioned in 2019 and the Spatial Plan enacted in 2020.

Hearings on housing intensifications were held last year by a group of resource management commissioners known as the Independent Hearings Panel.

But the recommendations from that panel have been controversial, and councillors said they would make their own amendments in order to zone for more intensification than the panel recommended.

Eleanor West of City for People previously described the vote as an opportunity to free the city from its “housing doom loop”. The pro-density group has encouraged councillors to increase the areas where upzoning is allowed, particularly in the inner-city suburbs.

Character housing advocacy group LiveWellington said the council should stick to the recommendations of commissioners.

Convener Jane O’Loughlin said the council’s Housing Capacity Assessment showed the recommendations would provide enough housing to meet the city’s needs over the next 30 years and the furore had been a “very big storm in a teacup”.

Any amendments to the recommendations would be “very disappointing for the hundreds of people who took part in the submissions”, O’Loughlin said.

The city’s last District Plan was approved in 2000, after being in the works since 1995. While changes can be made in between new plans, major overhauls like this one are few and far between.

The council meeting started at 9.30am and is expected to last most of the day.