https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/no-quick-housing-fix-dunedin-mayor-says
Reporter Morris does say that the DCC Second Generation Plan “had been blamed for holding up the development of hundreds of new homes”, and says that “The 2GP itself has also been described by one property developer as “broken” despite rezoning 190ha of new land for residential development.”
Reporter Morris fails to report that Crs. Hawkins and Benson-Pope pushed through new harsher 2GP rules for residential building in rural and semi-rural areas where the 15 ha rule for a house has been increased to a draconian 40 hectares, massively decreasing housing section possibilities, and massively devaluing many rural and semi-rural property values. Morris fails to mention the absurd 2GP rule for granny flats requiring them to be only for a family member…
“Mr Hawkins favoured infill development over urban sprawl” says Morris, but in fact his green ideology has limited both – the 2GP won’t let you build in the country hills and the 2GP absurd requirements for houses on the low-lying flat to be ‘relocatable’ means you can’t build economically on the flat either.
The housing ‘crisis’ has been created by those that now disallow a quick fix because of their ideologies.
Solutions for rapid Dunedin housing development – reverse most 2GP restrictive zoning changes for starters, get rid of ‘family member’ requirement, change zoning focus from satelite-view control-freaking to actual visual amenity effects from ground level, recognise and support new technology off-grid solar/wind power, modern eco-septic-tank systems, and require large rainwater collection systems meaning many new housing options that do not need extended infrastructure…
Sell much unused/underused DCC land for housing development, do deals with the likes of Ngai Tahu for inner city hi-density residential development, get the Dippie brothers and other developers interested in Dunedin again by making things less anal and bureaucratic…