RMA proposals could help free-up land for housing

Wednesday 29th March 2017
RMA proposals could help free-up land for housing, says Chamber

Changes proposed for the Resource Management Act would likely speed up the much-needed building of housing on Wellington’s greenfield sites, says Chamber Chief Executive John Milford.

“Developers are saying it’s taking three years to get some of these houses built, and that one year of that is getting resource consents through the council, so something’s wrong.

“The Productivity Commission talks about how a future urban planning system should respond to growth pressures, and that information about land prices should be a central policy and monitoring tool to drive decisions on release, servicing and rezoning of development capacity. It seems that these are the type of issues that are holding back the housing build that Wellington Mayor Justin Lester is talking about.

“The RMA in its present form is too broad and unclear when it comes to planning in our cities, and a new Act would need to give more clarity around all aspects of planning.”
ends

© Scoop Media