Newspaper Article 1994 – Tolley wants joint urban growth plan

Tolley wants joint urban growth plan

By Mary Shanahan

Staff reporter, Napier

Napier’s deputy mayor Anne Tolley today urged Hastings to bring the urban development issue “to the table” to allow the councils to evolve joint strategies.

Claiming that Hastings felt it had to compete with Napier for urban development Cr Tolley said that unless both cities set aside the constant “me too” attitude, they would continue cutting their own throats by building houses on New Zealand’s best agricultural and horticultural land.

The Hastings District Council and the Napier City Council should be considering severely limiting the expansion of both cities on productive land.

Suggesting a joint development approach could be worth considering for some areas, she said Poraiti and Bay View would provide for urban expansion without a significant loss of productivity and employment opportunities.

1988 study

The two areas both adjoined Napier and Hastings boundaries and were identified as suitable for residential expansion in a 1988 study by the Hawke’s Bay County Council.

Cr Tolley said the Hastings and Napier councils should be encouraging sensible infill, medium high rise and a varied, innovative approach to residential development.

She said she had raised the idea of a combined approach to urban development at a meeting of the council’s joint issues group in November last year, making clear her intention was to see addressed the very concerns now surfacing in the Hastings Lyndhurst Rd debate.

Implications

“I deliberately raised the issue because residential development over productive land, whether in Napier or Hastings, has serious implications for the whole Heretaunga Plains area.”

The planning managers from both councils were brought to a meeting to provide an update on each council’s urban expansion study and to discuss a combined approach.

Although representatives on the joint issues group had been assured that staff were in constant contact with one another, Cr Tolley said the issue was shelved at the request of Hastings’ policy manager, Mike Theelen, until a preliminary report on a Hastings urban development study was presented to the district council. “We are still awaiting an update,” Cr Tolley said.

Capacity

“The planners and consultants speak of the demand in relation to capacity. Some Hastings councillors have expressed great concern that the lack of capacity in Hastings has forced people to buy and build in Taradale. I ask, is that such a bad thing?”

By combining the capacity of both cities within reasonable boundaries, Cr Tolley suggested that would meet total demand.

“Is that not the way the market works anyway, with buyers ranging across both cities for choice? Let’s use our twin-city uniqueness instead of pursuing separate, competitive entities,” she said.

Too simplistic, says Dwyer

It is too simplistic to say that “soil should reign supreme” when it comes to housing expansion on the Heretaunga Plains, Hastings mayor Jeremy Dwyer said today.

He said he shared Cr Tolley’s view that in the medium to longer term, more integrated planning was desirable and he was sure the joint issues group could usefully discuss a 25 to 50-year planning horizon for Hastings and Napier.

However, while both local and new residents to the region saw Hastings and Napier as one conurbation for a range of housing choices, it was clear that people would follow their own preferences if they could.

“The Hastings District Council urban development study has identified a clear desire for mid-to-upper housing in areas such as Lyndhurst and Arataki,” said Mr Dwyer.

“It is too simplistic to say that soil should reign supreme, especially noting that the Napier City Council has zoned top-quality soils in Church Rd, Taradale, against the same lobby the Hastings District Council is now hearing from over Lyndhurst.

“The new resource management regime demands that sustainability apply equally to quality land as to quality of community.

“There have been several strong and unequivocal statements from the Napier City Council sources that they had completed their planning studies, and did not see the need for a further regional twin- city approach,” Mr Dwyer said.

Drain project approved

Then Hastings District Council will spend an estimated $1.6-million on upgrading the Southland Drain.

The Council’s engineering committee yesterday approved the project, which will be completed over three years and is expected to result in 25 hectares of land becoming available for urban housing.

The project will include construction of stopbanks on both sides of the drain between Railway Rd and Park Rd South, enlargement of the Murdoch Rd culvert, deepening between Southland Rd and Norton Rd. Two other culverts will also be deepened and at least two new pump stations needed.

Drainage engineer Warwick Bull said work would greatly reduce the risk of flooding to many properties.

“A considerable benefit of the project will be uplifting of building and subdivisional restrictions on approximately 25ha of residential land. This will allow owners to extend dwellings without awkward changes in floor level, and will allow closer development of the land to proceed. This latter benefit will be appreciated most in Southland Place where owners of 1.2ha of undeveloped residential land have been waiting seven years for works on the Southland Drain to be committed,” Mr Bull said.

Environmental engineering manager Rob Green said talks would be held with affected landowners before work began.