Minister backs sweeping housing changes for city

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Housing Minister Chris Bishop has approved the Wellington City Council’s sweeping plan to allow townhouses and apartments in the suburbs.

The council’s vote to loosen zoning rules and allow apartments throughout the city was its most significant housing decision since 2000.

Six-storey apartments would be allowed in several inner-city suburbs as well as those near train stations along the Johnsonville line.

Bishop went further than the council and included Kilbirnie in the list of suburbs where six-storey buildings would be allowed.

“This is a step forward for Wellington and shows commitment from both local and central government to fixing our housing crisis,” said Mayor Tory Whanau. The city needed “abundant and affordable” places for the next generation to live.

However, Bishop has not agreed with the council’s move to delist 10 heritage buildings including the notorious Gordon Wilson Flats and the Miramar Gas Tank. There was no expert evidence that allowed him to reject the heritage listings, he said.

Bishop said this afternoon that he was constrained by “the strictures of the Resource Management Act” when considering the heritage listings and had to give that careful consideration.

“The test is not whether or not they’re an eyesore. The test is not whether it would be better for Wellington if they were knocked down and development happened. The test … was whether or not they qualify as heritage.”

Bishop noted he had received correspondence from Whanau around making it easier to remove heritage listings and had already asked for advice. “I think it is clear to many people that needs fixing,” he said.

Whanau said she was “obviously disappointed” the heritage listings were reinstated but would continue to work with the minister on further reform.

In general, Bishop said the council’s recommendations “give better effect” to housing intensification as required, “in that they provide additional capacity for housing and business land, will better achieve a well-functioning urban environment, will better provide for a competitive development market and provide for a more efficient use of land”.

Jesse Richardson from pro-density group A City for People said he was thrilled by the minister’s decision.

“My big takeaway is that Wellington is back. We have spent the last decade with a lot of people saying Wellington is dying, Wellington isn’t the city it used to be, but I feel like in the coming decades people are going to be saying that Wellington is a city on the rise.

“And it’s because we made this awesome decision to make it affordable to live here and let people live in the kind of housing they want.”

The decision did not please everyone – councillor Iona Pannett, a character and heritage advocate, said Bishop's calls on character were 'deeply disappointing'.

'It just shows that politicians should not be involved in making development decisions,' she said.

The council's earlier recommendations about heritage would have left it open to judicial review, she said. The council did need to help ensure people had places to live – such as with the office block to apartment developments it was doing.

Jane O’Loughlin, from character advocacy group Live Wellington, said the minister’s “extreme decision” was disappointing but not surprising. The panel had strong and valid reasons for its decisions and should have been given more weight.

“It’s disappointing in terms of character, because it was possible to have a win-win for Wellington, it was possible to have enough development capacity for the future population needs as well as keeping Wellington’s iconic character areas.”

Advocates of increased housing density, including Whanau, said the move would help to lift Wellington out of the housing crisis that was pushing young people out of the city.

The council took the unusual step of departing from the recommendations made by an independent hearings panel, a group of resource management experts who spent weeks hearing submissions from the public and evaluating the city’s housing plan.

The panel’s reports on housing were slammed by economists, especially for their conclusion that zoning for more housing would not alleviate the city’s ongoing housing shortage. Economists said the panel had “scoffed” at the economic consensus around building more houses.

Councillor Rebecca Matthews, the self-described “oldest YIMBY in town”, was instrumental in the push for greater housing intensity on council.

After hearing the news she said, “What a great day … It doesn’t mean all of the other challenges go away, but it means that particular barrer is gone.”

“It’s all still just potential, but how great for Wellington to have so much potential.”

Looking towards the future, the next task for the council would be focusing on bringing the city’s infrastructure up to a standard where it could support more population growth.

The changes made by the city council, in departing from the panel, were mostly to allow more apartments and townhouses – to remove 10 heritage listings, allow upzoning in the suburbs near the Johnsonville train line, include Adelaide Rd as part of the central city area, and dial back character areas from the panel’s recommended increase.

The city orginally had 306 hectares of character areas, now that will decrease to 85.

The disagreements between council and the panel meant the final decision went to Bishop. He could choose between what the panel of experts recommended or what the council had decided.

Why does this matter?

The Wellington District Plan – a set of rules determining what type of housing can be built in which locations – was approved by the council in March. This part of the plan is related to housing intensification, where apartments and townhouses can be built on previously single house sections.

The choice was 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 was a long process to get to the Minister’s decision, beginning with reports commissioned by the council in 2019 and the Spatial Plan enacted in 2020.

Hearings on housing intensification were held last year by a group of resource management commissioners known as the Independent Hearings Panel. But the recommendations made by the panel were controversial, and councillors made changes in March.

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 encouraged councillors to increase the areas where apartments and townhouses allowed, especially in the suburbs closest to the city.

On the other side, character housing advocacy group LiveWellington said the council should have stuck to the panel recommendations. 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”.

The city’s previous 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.