As Nelson overhauls its planning rules to cater for future population growth, a Government proposal to make it easier to build granny flats is receiving a mixed response.

Small standalone houses up to 60 square metres would be able to be built without a resource or building consent under the proposal which aims to create more affordable housing.

Currently, Nelson City Council is reworking its planning rules to make them more flexible to encourage intensification, create more homes, and apply downward pressure on housing prices.

In some cases, this would be achieved by allowing up to six storeys to be built without a resource consent.

Mandy Bishop, the council’s group manager – environmental management, said the Government's granny flats proposal is “unlikely” to make many changes to either the city’s existing or proposed planning rules for urban areas.

“These rules already enable granny flats and small dwellings to be built without resource consent, subject to meeting some bulk and location standards.”

However, the new national environment standard created under Government’s proposal would better enable Nelson’s rural areas to install a granny flat, unlike under the existing rules.

Bishop also noted that it will be challenging for the council to ensure that the granny flats will be built according to the Building Code and in a safe location if a building consent isn’t required.

Council officers recommended several changes to Plan Change 29 following public submissions, with many in support of small-scale and medium-density intensification.

Local urban designer Timo Neubauer is sceptical that granny flats will provide a solution to the region’s housing woes.

He said that granny flats increase the capital value of a property which makes it more expensive and difficult for developers to intensify a site into townhouses or apartments.

“If you can actually go to a model … where you can go three storeys, four storeys, five storeys, all of a sudden you can actually fit a lot more people on the same plot of land.”

Neubauer advocated for multi-storey perimeter blocks, where housing is brought forward to the street and the back of the property remains an open, green space.

This model would be difficult to achieve if backyards fill up with granny flats, he said.

“We actually want to ultimately see some well-designed intensification and not just cramming people in with no outlook and no sunlight access.”

While Plan Change 29 goes some of the way to achieving that, Neubauer would like to see greater design standards incorporated into the rules.

However, local architectural designer Mark Fielding believed granny flats and other secondary minor dwellings could provide housing for a 50 per cent increase in the city’s population without having to build up.

“It flies in the face, I believe, of Plans Change 29.”

He said small dwellings can provide cheap accommodation for young families saving for their first house, but getting a resource consent for them can be “very difficult” in many districts across the country.

“It's a damn good solution. It's going to provide a lot of work for the industry as well, and it's really simple work and easy work. These things can get designed and built in a matter of weeks.”

However, Fielding also noted the challenge of ensuring compliance with the flats meeting the Building Code and other requirements, while also highlighting the risk of overloading council water infrastructure with unmonitored additions.

“How's it going to be controlled?”

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