Richmond councillor Timo Neubauer. Photo: LDR / Max Frethey
Urban designers might want to sharpen their pencils; a new competition could be on the horizon.
Concerns that denser housing was not being built quickly enough in Tasman have prompted a new councillor to kick-start an initiative aimed at eventually encouraging higher uptake.
Richmond councillor Timo Neubauer successfully convinced his peers to investigate the possibility of running an urban design competition for the rapidly-growing town during Thursday's meeting of Tasman District Council.
Neubauer, himself an urban designer, said the competition would be about "shifting the dial" on the amount of intensified housing being built.
A long-time proponent of intensification, he said denser housing results in cheaper long-term infrastructure costs and more diverse and affordable housing, protects more productive land, results in and emits, fewer greenhouse gases than continuing to build new suburbs of standalone houses.
The number of homes being built on empty land (greenfield development) has eclipsed the number of new townhouses or apartments (intensified housing), figures presented to the joint committee of the Tasman District and Nelson City Councils showed.
The Nelson Tasman region has set the target of 53 percent of its new homes for the next 30 years being from greenfield development and 47 percent from intensification.
Of Nelson's new homes over the 2024/25 financial year, 35 percent were standalone houses, and 45 percent were townhouses, flats, or units.
The designs, like Neubauer's own example for Dresden (pictured), can help residents and developers visualise what well-designed intensification could look like, in the hopes of shifting market demand. Photo: Supplied / Timo Neubauer
In contrast, standalone houses were 93 percent of Tasman's new dwellings, with townhouses, flats, and units just 2 percent.
The remaining 20 percent of Nelson's and 5 percent of Tasman's new dwellings are retirement village units.
Neubauer said that changing the region's housing supply couldn't be left to chance, with current intensification in Richmond being "piecemeal" and creating "sausage flats" with low amenity.
A competition would allow designers to show residents and developers a picture of what a well-designed intensified town could look like.
"This might be our last resort of giving our community, our developers, a shared vision as to how to take things forward."
He added that showing off good design wouldn't be the sole tool to encourage intensification, but it was one of the quicker methods available to the council, and that even a small shift of just 1 percent would result in "enormous" financial savings in the long term.
Fellow Richmond ward councillor Kit Maling had reservations about the proposal, saying that the market didn't want denser homes.
"It's something that will happen over time, but I don't think Richmond's ready for it."
Councillor Dave Woods, supporting Neubauer, agreed with Maling but said good design could help shift interest from buyers and therefore influence demand and the market.
"We see that the cost of [urban] sprawl is contributing to our weakening financial position … we need to be creative in our solutions that we can drive demand for intensive housing."
Council staff confirmed that they had the capability to develop a report on whether it was feasible for the council to run such a competition.
The proposal's timing was "pretty good" as national and local planning rules were being overhauled.
Councillors backed the idea unanimously and would only decide whether or not to run the competition after they were presented with the feasibility report.
That report will outline the scope and details of the competition, including its objectives, who was eligible to participate, how it would be judged, whether there were sponsorship opportunities, what the prize pool might be, as well as the competition's proposed budget and timeframe.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith. Photo: LDR / Max Frethey
During Tuesday's meeting of the councils' joint committee, Nelson mayor Nick Smith said intensification was ultimately up to developers.
"The council cannot completely control what the mix of greenfield and intensification is because it depends completely on someone being prepared to invest their dough."
- Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air