Roxburgh Crescent is an industrial pocket of Hokowhitu, sandwiched between the river and neighbouring homes. We're proposing to rezone the street to enable up to 105 new homes to be built.
We'll consult formally on this change to our District Plan this year.
Roxburgh Crescent is currently zoned industrial and occupied by industrial businesses like the Higgins Depot. Rezoning the area from industrial to residential will help to meet the growing demand for homes in Palmy.
The land is well suited for housing as it is flat, centrally located, and has good access to green spaces, public transport, schools and local shops.
Why we’re planning to rezone Roxburgh Crescent
Roxburgh Crescent (near the Ruahine Street entrance to the river) has been identified as a future growth area for housing since 2018, with the idea initiated by the main landowner. This is a rare opportunity for Palmy as it’s not often that large sites within the city become available for housing redevelopment.
Hokowhitu was earmarked for urban growth during the early 1900s but housing never quite made it to the edge. This gave the opportunity for industrial activities to be established here around the 1950s.
Over time housing eventually reached and surrounded the Roxburgh Crescent industrial area, making it an unusual feature within the suburb. Rezoning to enable people to build homes in Roxburgh Crescent will make it consistent with the rest of Hokowhitu.
We listened to your feedback and we've made some changes
The first phase of community engagement on our proposed Roxburgh Residential Area plan change closed in late 2022 and we held a second round in late 2023.
Based on this feedback and early indicators from our stormwater team for this project, we've made changes to the proposed height and density of the site. These include increasing the minimum lot size for each individual property from 150m2 to 250m2 to cater for permeability standards, and only enabling homes of up to 3 storeys in the area directly behind the stopbank. This will provide a softer transition in height from existing homes to the new residential area.
Latest structure plan and draft rules
You can see the revised structure plan in the photo gallery at the bottom of this page (it's the third image). Here are our draft rules for the area:
Draft District Plan Provisions(PDF, 670KB)
Next steps
We expect to formally notify the draft plan change later this year. Once the plan change is notified, we’ll be holding a month-long public consultation during which you can let us know your views on the proposed plan change by making a submission. You can also indicate as part of your submission whether you’d like to speak to commissioners in person during the plan change hearing.
A final decision on the proposed plan change is expected to be made in 2025.
There will be a range of housing options within the new area
The government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development requires us to enable a range housing types within the city to meet demand. We're planning to provide opportunities for medium density housing in Roxburgh Crescent to ensure the land is used efficiently.
Draft Plan Change E: Roxburgh Crescent Residential Area would allow a minimum lot size of 250m2 and a maximum of 500m2. This would enable a wider range of housing types on smaller lots of land. We’re also proposing to allow some of the new homes to be up to 3 storeys, which would allow those closest to the stop bank to have views to the Manawatū River.
See our photo gallery at the bottom of the page to give you an idea of what this could look like.
Read how we're enabling medium density housing across the rest of the city
Proposal includes new river access
We're proposing to provide a new entrance for the public to access the Manawatū River from Roxburgh Crescent. This would happen through a land exchange.
There is currently a small area of reserve acting as a buffer between Roxburgh Crescent’s industrial activities and housing at the southern end. This buffer won't be needed if the whole area is zoned residential.
Council has already consulted on the intent to move this reserve, to provide a new river access in the middle of the new housing development area. This is being looked into as a separate process to this plan change, under the Reserves Act.
We have more work to do
There is still work that needs to be done before people can build new homes in Roxburgh Crescent.
Development of the area will be guided by a structure plan to inform where homes, roads and the new river access can go.
We’ll also need to consult formally, which is when we'll notify Proposed Plan Change E and ask for submissions. We expect this to happen this year.
We have completed the following technical assessments:
Liquefaction assessment report(PDF, 7MB)