Proposed Plan Change I: Increasing housing supply and choice

In late 2024, we formally notified and publicly consulted on Plan Change I, which seeks to rezone parts of the city into a medium-density zone. Development within this zone would allow for a wider range of housing types and help meet the need for more homes within the city.

We received 214 submissions on this proposed plan change and are now approaching the final stages of the process.

Read the summary of submissions(PDF, 1MB)

Read original submissions(PDF, 29MB)

Read further submissions(PDF, 2MB)

Hearing

A hearing will open on Monday, 18 August at 10am to address legal matters regarding the scope of certain submissions only. The hearing will then be adjourned following the presentation of legal matters and will reconvene on 1 September, as originally planned.

Minute 1 of hearing panel(PDF, 187KB)

Minute 2 of hearing panel(PDF, 128KB)

Notice of hearing and procedure sheet(PDF, 333KB)

We need a plan because we’re growing fast

Palmy will likely become a metropolitan city by 2030, meaning we’ll be a city of more than 100,000 people.

In 2020, the government placed requirements on Council to set housing targets and make sure our city’s infrastructure and services will be able to meet future demand. To do this, Palmy needs 5,000 new homes over the next 10 years, and 13,000 new homes over the next 30 years.

Government standards have different rules for cities depending on their size. You can read more about this in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development.

Bigger cities like Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are Tier 1, which means almost all their residential areas will be rezoned for higher density housing unless they’re categorised as unsuitable. For example, heritage areas.

Palmy is a Tier 2 city like Dunedin and Nelson, which means the rules for us are not quite as strict. This gives us a few more options to come up with a plan that suits Palmy’s identity, capacity and needs.

We’ve made some changes based on your feedback and technical advice on stormwater

We’ve asked for your feedback on this topic twice in the past, resulting in 684 of you providing feedback through our website, and even more of you chatting to us at our drop-in sessions and commenting on our social media. This has been used to help shape the final draft of our proposal. Key feedback themes included:

• Six units per site is too many
• Support for careful stormwater management
• The need to maintain residential amenity and character

The main change we’ve made in response to public feedback is to reduce the number of buildings proposed to be allowed on each site, from six to three. This would still allow more homes to be built on sections within the zone, while reducing the possible impacts on neighbours.

Where we propose the zone will be

We think our Medium Density Residential Zone should be located where there is good access to things people need, like public transport, shops, schools and green space. Areas within 800 metres of our city centre are already enabled for medium density housing.

The outline of our proposed Medium Density Residential Zone can be seen in yellow on our interactive zone map. The Stormwater Overlay is in blue.

Tip: Zoom in or use the search bar to see if your property is included in the proposed zone for medium density housing. Please note, this map may be slow to load on some devices.

These areas have been identified for inclusion in the new zone based on their walkable distance to:

• bus stops (within 500m)
• parks or reserves (within 400m)
• schools (within 800m)
• a shopping centre (within 800m)

Enabling more housing within the urban area we’re already using could reduce our climate emissions by making it easier for people to walk, bus, scooter or bike to get around the city, instead of relying on cars. It would also reduce the amount we’d need to build outward into our rural environment.

Though neighbourhoods will change over the coming decades, it’s unlikely this would happen quickly. Medium density housing is already allowed in many areas within 800 metres of the city centre and around some neighbourhood shopping centres. What we’ve seen in these areas is a gradual change, with some developers building more densely on each site and others sticking with traditional homes.

We’re proposing that some development could occur without resource consent

To better enable more new housing, we’re proposing that a resource consent would not be needed for some new homes in the medium density residential zone, as long as they meet the standards, we’ve set out in the proposed plan change. This means these homes could be built without the neighbour’s consent. All new homes would still require building consent.

We’re proposing that resource consent wouldn’t be required in these instances:  

• up to 11 metres (you can currently build up to 9 metres in the Residential Zone). Building consent will still be required.  
• up to 3 units/homes as part of a development. Anything more than this would require resource consent. 
• Resource consent would be required where developers are proposing more homes than we permit, for homes that don't meet our permitted development standards, or for sites in within the Stormwater Overlay showing areas with added stormwater requirements.

Anybody developing their site would need to meet a range of standards

Though some areas of the new zone would not need resource consent, the design of new homes would need to meet a range of set standards to get building consent approval.

These requirements aim to provide clarity for those building new homes while making sure the homes are well built and designed to take into account neighbouring properties, those who will live in them and the surrounding neighbourhood.

A summary of our proposed design standards is available below.

Summary of proposed design standards for new homes(PDF, 174KB)

Full details of each standard can be found in Section 10A, along with the other technical documents below. Please note these standards should be read in conjunction with all rules of the zone.

Read the Section 10A - Development Standards(PDF, 344KB)

You can find the full Section 10A section and other technical documents below. Please note these standards should be read in conjunction with all rules of the zone.

Proposed Plan Change I

Proposed Section 10A - Medium Density Residential Zone(PDF, 579KB)

Proposed Section 7B - Subdivision in Medium Density Residential Zone(PDF, 178KB)

Proposed Section 4A - Definitions(PDF, 150KB)

Consequential Changes to the District Plan
(PDF, 525KB)

Section 32 Evaluation

Section 32 - Evaluation Report(PDF, 4MB)

Rezoning Report(PDF, 3MB)

Accessibility and Demand Assessment(PDF, 3MB)

Development Capacity Assessment(PDF, 889KB)

Supporting technical assessments

Climate Change Assessment(PDF, 752KB)

Economic Assessment(PDF, 556KB)

Landscape Report(PDF, 6MB)

Parks Servicing Report(PDF, 11MB)

RoM response to Clause 3B consultation(PDF, 4MB)

Stormwater Servicing Assessment(PDF, 22MB)

Transport Assessment(PDF, 10MB)

Urban Design(PDF, 2MB)

Wastewater Servicing Assessment(PDF, 7MB)

Water Servicing Assessment
(PDF, 3MB)

We’ve added some new areas to the proposed plan and changed the name

You may have noticed the name of our proposed plan change has changed from Proposed Plan Change I: Medium Density Residential Zone to Proposed Plan Change I: Increasing Housing Supply and Choice.

This is to better reflect the aim of the proposed change and the addition of some neighbourhood centres, which are currently zoned to allow multi-unit housing. By adding these areas to the proposed zone, we aim to simplify the existing requirements for building multi-unit homes, addressing feedback from developers who find the current rules too complicated. Please note that all new homes will still require building consent.