Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Generation Zero welcomes “more ambitious” Spatial Plan
Press Release – Generation Zero
A City for People, Generation Zero, and Renters United are elated that Wellington City Councillors passed a more ambitious Spatial Plan today that goes above and beyond the original Draft Spatial Plan. They have taken real action on the housing crisis and will ensure we provide more homes for all.
Over the past months, we have strived to give platform to the under-represented voices in this conversation about Wellington’s future. This space has been dominated by the privileged few; conservative resident’s associations, landlords, property speculators, and heritage lobby groups who benefit from this broken system. They have strong incentives to maintain this status quo at the expense of this city’s real character – its people. We’re proud to have been able to radically change the direction of debate to center intergenerational equity, the decolonisation of our built environment, and people’s right to adequate and accessible housing.
There has been a national spotlight on this campaign thanks to strong advocacy from so many people across the region. Thanks to the pressure you have all brought we’re finally seeing a shift in Council on this issue. Councillors are recognising that decades of inaction mean house prices and rents are out of control, while badly maintained properties rot from underneath us. People are being priced out of the city, spending hours each day commuting while the city sprawls and our emissions rise.
We would like to thank the Councillors who stood up for a progessive vision for our city – your efforts to push this plan further are deeply appreciated. We applaud the 1,300+ residents of Wellington who made their voices heard and signed our petition demanding action from the Council, and got this more ambitious Spatial Plan across the lineThank you to the people who shared their housing stories with us and entered our photo competition – your words and pictures have made this an issue no one could ignore.
The outcome of today’s vote will enable thousands more of the homes that Wellington desperately needs. The reduction of the colonial character precincts and the increases to walkable catchments around public transport and the centre city are both big wins for action on the housing and climate crises. The outcome of these changes are a plan that goes above and beyond the original Draft Spatial Plan. This is a strong signal to other cities in New Zealand that it’s time to step up and implement the NPS-UD to enable enough homes for all.
However, this isn’t the end of the process. Over the next two years, this Spatial Plan will inform the development of the new District Plan. We are committed to supporting a District Plan that allows Wellington to plan for the future but are disappointed that legislation requires such a delay in implementing this vision with two extra consultations and a court process. 2024 is too long to wait to fix our housing crisis, which is severe and getting worse by the day. We now call on Central Government to intervene and speed up the implementation of the NPS-UD and fund infrastructure to realise this new development capacity.
Ngā mihi nui,
A City for People, Generation Zero, and Renters United
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url
Oh my goodness: this vote really was political, councillors doing Labour and Greens’ bidding. Not using courage or critical thinking. The character areas are too small to change the housing crisis. And the divisiveness fuelled by your campaign has not been unnoticed. But most of all this will NOT provide affordable housing.
Let’s be practical and look at the whole picture… the people being taxed for having utes and who will pass this tax on are the people you need to build the houses. Surprised there is not a call on government to increase building and related trades apprenticeships and offer incentives or tax breaks to pay for their courses. And finding ways that we can produce the building materials in NZ. You do know the issues the building industry are facing? Can’t fix the crisis without the workers.
Although I am ‘elderly’ and co-own a detached old house right in the middle of a character area, I am with the young people of Gen Zero etc.
Notable in this debate is the excessive focus on the inner-city. The region has an extensive 100km rail transit network which is very tram-like in its physical characteristics. It has many opportunities for medium-density transit-oriented development around its stations, at a lower cost than in the CBD.
But this is an unattractive prospect for a lot of housing because the rail system doesn’t traverse the CBD and all the places where people need to go – and as far as the current ‘authorities’ are concerned, that is permanent. Wellington is the only region in the world like that – even Auckland is building a City Rail Link!
Fix that, offer a zero-carbon one-seat ride from home to the key destinations and you will go a long way to ensuring decent, affordable housing. (Send an email to brent.efford@me.com asking for my KiwiTram e-newsletter to learn more.)
M – I agree that at present every tradie turns up to site in a large king cab ute – or a white panel van – but not everything has to be that way. For instance, in the Netherlands, builders may turn up on site on an old pushbike, with a truckload of materials getting delivered to site per day. There’s absolutely no need for a well-run site to have more than one trip to the big building mega-store per day – or really even per week. Prefabrication of building elements can solve a lot of the transport problems. We can actually Think our way out of this king cab conundrum.
Ironic watching the news…who turns up to help the Papatoetoe community: the “ute” warriors not the “keyboard” warriors. Thank you Naylor Love …love your work.
Guy sure it happens in NZ now where it can. In the future maybe something else – a scooter? A sedgwick? Electric jet pack? Why limit it to a bike? 🙃 I do see workers being picked up..ute/van sharing. 👍But for now..living in the here and now – a housing crisis and what vehicles are available.
I couldn’t get past the first para. (my Caps for emphasis):
“They have taken REAL ACTION on the housing crisis and will ENSURE we provide more homes FOR ALL.” Utter bollocks! This ain’t going to ensure real action … it ain’t going to be ‘homes for all’, and it is not likely to generate much (if any) affordable housing i.e. at least not where you want it to be. Meantime developers are laughing all the way to the bank; plus few home owners/land bankers are getting ready to farm their profits, and grow more unaffordable housing. I am saddened how folk seem to have been willingly conned by the supporting councillors and all the rhetoric. They’re pulling the wool and the wrong levers. It took a long time for NZ to get to this crisis, and it’ll take ‘generations’ to robustly fix it … Central Govts are accountable. Get real Generation Zero. Displacing folk from their existing wooden homes in order to house more … doesn’t add up. An over simplification of a very complex scenario.
And please note – NZ has yet to learn how to do ‘intensification.’
BTW Where are the lifecycle carbon costs of demolishing perfectly performing wooden houses (+ whatever replaces them – apartments that leak or crack, or whatever, after a decade or less.)