The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington.
Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses and apartments that were previously illegal to build.
Decisions where Bishop sided with the council
Adelaide Road will be part of the centre city zone
The walkable catchment will be 15 minutes
Smaller character precincts
The Johnsonville train is a train [“mass rapid transit”]
Ten-minute walking catchments around all train stations
No setback requirements for townhouses
Hay Street, Hania Street and Moir Streets will be zoned for high density
Decisions where Bishop sided with the independent hearings panel:
Not currently, I'd guess - but it won't be clear where until it's too late. But it'll be just another job on the pile.
Of course, apartments don't all spontaneously become active at once, too, so half the time we'll probably get away with it, but I suspect somewhere along the way we're bound to have an awkward moment
These streets were all minor exceptions where the IHP had allowed weird density exceptions because the residents were rich and good at arguing and gave lots of reasons why their street was different to all the streets. The council rejected these exemptions, and Bishop agreed.
Overall seems like a pretty good result. Disappointing that the heritage buildings will still be protected, but sounds like that was rejected on technicalities rather than due to any desire to retain those buildings.