No early implementation for planning rules

An application to fast-track implementation of planning rules that would have allowed intensified housing developments in some parts of the Queenstown Lakes District has been turned down by the Environment Court.

Last year QLDC applied to the Environment Court requesting immediate legal effect for some of the new rules in the Proposed District Plan that would have enabled more residential housing to be built in areas proposed to be zoned “low density”.

Tony Avery, QLDC’s General Manager Planning and Development, said the application to the court had been one of the ways the Council was attempting to address the district’s well publicised shortage of housing.

“The Council felt it was an opportunity that was worth pursuing, but the Court has ruled otherwise. We will continue to try every avenue to address housing supply and affordability in the District.”

In his ruling, Judge Jackson acknowledged that QLDC was “making a determined effort to keep the quantity of relatively affordable houses supplied in the district as minimally constrained as possible, in a district whose landscapes and features are its main drawcard.”

He said the Council’s application was unusual in that it sought to free up existing restrictions, rather than impose new constraints on development, which is when the law around ‘immediate legal effect’ requests is normally used.

In rejecting the application, he said the potential benefit of enabling more housing was outweighed by “potentially serious prejudice to some landowners who might lose the mutual benefit of space around them.”

The rules will therefore have to go through the formal process under the Resource Management Act as part of the District Plan Review.

QLDC begins hearings next week to consider over 800 submissions and 200-plus further submissions on the Proposed District Plan. The hearings will take most of the year and, allowing for appeals, full implementation of decisions could take several years.

ENDS

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