Masterton's best chance to help fix the housing crisis has been "squandered" by a recent resource consent decision, a Wairarapa businessman says. However the council says affordable housing is allowed on the site, but current rules mean they can't require it.
A Wairarapa businessman is calling the Masterton District Council out for missing an opportunity to require cheaper homes in a new development. Photo: RNZ
Stephen Yeats was one of a handful of submitters to an online independent hearing called by Masterton District Council in May, over its plans for a "development area" in Chamberlain Road.
The council raised the consent for the area, about 1.5 kilometres west of the town's centre, surrounded by Upper Plain Road, Chamberlain Road, Ngaumutawa Road, and rural land to the south-west.
The Future Development Area is not a consented subdivision, but plans for it include enabling better traffic management, connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists, proximity to bus routes and a mixture of section sizes.
It's one of three areas the council wants to use for further urban development.
Part of the block is being marketed by Jennian Homes as the Westbush housing scheme.
The hearing, held online due to Covid-19 restrictions, was overseen by independent commissioner Lindsay Daysh. The consent was granted in July, and Daysh delivered a report, highlighting several conditions.
Small or affordable housing was not one of them.
The proposed Chamberlain Road Future Development Area in Masterton. Photo: Supplied/ Masterton District Council
In the report Daysh said: "In my view, the Development Concept Plan process sets the framework, and there is nothing included which prevents the provision of smaller dwellings as an outcome".
However, Yeats, a company director from Clareville, said the council had already "squandered their best chance" of addressing housing shortages.
He said he was disappointed with the entire process, and it was a wasted opportunity for affordable housing in the town.
"This was a chance to make a change to the way we have been doing things, and it was wasted. The entire process was a disappointment, with a report written by a consultant, and the final decision written by a commissioner; it seemed that neither district council staff, nor councillors, had any say in the end result.
"Basically, it will be business as usual, and this large tract of land will likely be filled with large, unaffordable homes. The final decision allows "the market" to develop and build this site in a manner which has been happening in every private subdivision in Masterton for years.
"My submission to the consent application asked for conditions allowing smaller, affordable homes. Appallingly, the consultant's report admits that the normal way for land to be developed is to have large houses built."
The council's strategic planning manager Angela Jane said it would be "entirely possible" for someone to apply for a resource consent to build a smaller house on a smaller section of land in that area.
"Changes can be made through application for resource consent, which will be considered alongside the approved Future Development Area."
Ngaumutawa, Upper Plain, and Chamberlain roads border the proposed Future Development Area, which includes the Westbush housing development. Photo: Supplied/ Marcus Anselm/ Wairarapa Times-Age
Jane said the construction of 12 smaller homes on smaller sections in a development on Colombo Road, or the proposed Lorns Street North development could be considered to meet the definition of "affordable housing".
Earlier this month Masterton councillors supported a request for discussion about a National Policy Statement for affordable housing at the Local Government NZ annual meeting on 31 August.
The request, raised by Hamilton and Christchurch city councils, calls for laws requiring councils to take actions to facilitate cheaper homes.
Jane said under current laws the council's role is to enable developers and private owners to build smaller homes on smaller sites through provisions under district plans.
In the current Wairarapa Combined District Plan the smallest section size is 350m2; if a smaller section size is proposed a resource consent is required.
She said the combined district plan is coming up for its 10-year review, "which provides another opportunity to consider ways to further enable and encourage affordable housing".
"The consenting process judges a development on a site, or for a subdivision - against the rules in the district plan and the environmental effects - but it does not enable the council an opportunity to change a development to meet a different social outcome."
Masterton councillors Frazer Mailman and Tina Nixon are the representatives for the district in the Wairarapa Combined District Plan review when discussions start later this year.
They join Brian Jephson and Alistair Plimmer from South Wairarapa, Carterton's Robyn Cherry-Campbell and Rob Stockley, and two representatives from four iwi entities - Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Kahungunu ki Wairarapa- Tamaki Nui a Rua Trust, Rangitāne o Wairarapa, and Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust.
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