Urban Development Subcommittee
Minutes - 28 June 2022
Present: Cr
J Edgar (Chairperson), Councillors M Courtney, K Fulton, B McGurk, P
Rainey and Ms C Starkey
In
Attendance: Group Manager Environmental Management (C
Barton), Councillors R O’Neill—Stevens, R Sanson, Governance
Adviser (T Kruger) and Assistant Governance Adviser (A Bryce-Neumann)
Leave of Absence: Her
Worship the Mayor R Reese
Karakia
and Mihi Timatanga
Attendance:
Councillor K Fulton joined the meeting at 9.07a.m.
1. Apologies
There were no apologies.
2. Confirmation of
Order of Business
3. Interests
There were no updates to the
Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.
4. Public Forum
4.1. William Samuels - Urban
Development Agency
Document
number R26886
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William Samuels spoke about Nelson City Council
establishing an Urban Development Agency (UDA) as a Council Controlled
Organisation to oversee significant urban development, regeneration and
housing projects and tabled his speaking notes (A2912031).
Mr Samuels presented a summary to Nelson City Council to
pass a resolution to investigate and report on the feasibility of developing
a combined Nelson-Tasman Urban Development Agency.
The Chairperson confirmed that no resolution could be
passed at the current meeting. The Future
Development Strategy joint subcommittee had recommended looking into this
matter further, and discussions had already commenced with Tasman District
Council.
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Attachments
1 William
Samuels Nelson City Council establishing an Urban Development Agency (UDA)
(A2912031).
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4.2. Councillor Matt Lawrey,
attending in a personal capacity, Pierre Hammond and Ursula Bowman - A Concept
and Design for creating housing in the airspace above our central city carparks
Document number R26887
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Architectural designer Pierre Hammond, landscape architect
Ursula Bowman and Councillor Matt Lawrey shared a concept and design for
creating housing in the airspace above central city carparks and tabled
(A2912791, A2912794, A2912795 and A2912796).
Mr Lawrey answered questions on the design concept, retention
of the existing carpark, living in the apartments with parking downstairs,
green rooms plants on the building.
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Attachments
1 Image 1
(A2912791)
2 Image 2
(A2912794)
3 Image 3
(A2912795)
4 Image 4
(A2912796)
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5. Confirmation of
Minutes
5.1 14 April 2022, agenda
pages 5 - 8 refer.
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Resolved UD/2022/012
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That the Urban Development
Subcommittee
1. Confirms
the minutes of the meeting of the Urban Development Subcommittee, held on 14
April 2022, as a true and correct record.
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McGurk/Courtney Carried
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6. Exclusion
of the Public
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Resolved UD/2022/013
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That the Urban Development
Subcommittee
1. Excludes the public from the
following parts of the proceedings of this meeting.
2. The general subject of each matter
to be considered while the public is excluded, the reason for passing this
resolution in relation to each matter and the specific grounds under section
48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for
the passing of this resolution are as follows:
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Edgar/McGurk Carried
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Item
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General subject of each matter to be
considered
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Reason for passing this resolution in
relation to each matter
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Particular interests protected (where
applicable)
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1
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Urban Development Subcommittee Meeting - Confidential Minutes -
14 April 2022
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Section
48(1)(a)
The
public conduct of this matter would be likely to result in disclosure of
information for which good reason exists under section 7.
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The withholding of the information is necessary:
· Section
7(2)(h)
To enable the
local authority to carry out, without prejudice or disadvantage, commercial
activities
· Section
7(2)(i)
To enable the
local authority to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations
(including commercial and industrial negotiations)
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The meeting went into confidential
session at 9.36a.m. and resumed in public session at 9.38a.m.
The
only business transacted in confidential session was to confirm the
minutes. In accordance with the Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act, no reason for withholding this information from the public
exists, therefore this business has been recorded in the open minutes.
6.1 14
April 2022
Document number M19406, agenda
pages 3 - 5 refer.
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Resolved UD/2022/014
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That the Urban Development
Subcommittee
1. Confirms
the minutes of part of the meeting of the Urban Development Subcommittee,
held with the public excluded on 14 April 2022, as a true and correct record.
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Courtney/Rainey Carried
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Karakia
Whakamutanga
There being no further business the meeting ended at 9.38a.m.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings by
resolution on (date)
Item 6: Chairperson's
Report
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Urban Development Subcommittee
9 September 2022
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REPORT R27208
Chairperson's
Report
1. Purpose
of Report
1.1 To
provide a summary of key achievements of the Urban Development Subcommittee
over the past 18 months.
1.2 To
-report back to the committee on a matter within its areas of responsibility
that was considered directly by the Council, at its 25 August 2022 meeting.
2. Recommendation
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That
the Urban Development Subcommittee
1. Receives
the report Chairperson's Report (R27208).
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3. Housing
Reserve Delegations – Phase Two Report
3.1 The
Urban Development Subcommittee’s areas of responsibility include the Housing
Reserve however due to the cancellation of the last Urban Development
Subcommittee meeting and urgency, the Chair’s report on Phase Two of the
Housing Reserve was considered by Council in accordance with the Delegations
Register section 5.2.2, as below:
The Urban Development Subcommittee has delegations to consider the Housing
Reserve. However, in accordance with section 5.2.2 of the Delegations Register,
matters within the area of responsibility of a particular committee,
subcommittee or subordinate decision-making body may be considered directly by
Council with the agreement of the Chair of the subcommittee and the Mayor. This
has occurred in this case.
3.2 The
25 August 2022 Council meeting resolved:
Resolved CL/2022/179
That the Council
1. Receives the report Housing Reserve Phase 2 (R27160) and its
attachment (Housing Reserve Phase One Criteria and Process Sep2021 A2748972);
2. Approves Housing Reserve Phase Two as set out in this Report
(R27160) including its proposed value of $2 million as grant funding;
3. Notes
that $2 million has been provided for Phase Two of the Housing Reserve in the
2022/23 Annual Plan.
4. Approves $1 million in funding to the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust
from the Housing Reserve for the development of 76 Dodson Valley Road.
5. Approves $1 million in funding to Habitat for Humanity (Nelson) Ltd
from the Housing Reserve for the development of 181 Rutherford Street.
6. Delegates the confirmation of the grant funding agreements to the
Chief Executive.
4. Housing
Reserve
4.1 At
the Council meeting of 5 October 2021, Council approved Phase One of the
Housing Reserve (R26236) including process, objectives and outcomes. Following
a public application process, Council approved $850,000 to Nelson Tasman
Housing Trust and $1 million to Habitat for Humanity (Nelson) Ltd to provide
enduring, affordable housing at specific identified sites. Phase one criteria
has successfully delivered a return on investment of approximately 700% - 27
affordable homes being built in Nelson with a total value of $14 million.
4.2 At
the Council meeting of 25 August 2022, Council approved Phase Two of the
Housing Reserve (R27160) with a streamlined process following a direct request
for co-funding from Nelson Tasman Housing Trust ($1 million) and Habitat for
Humanity (Nelson) Ltd ($1 million) to provide enduring, affordable housing at
specific identified sites. Phase two, using the same criteria, is set to
deliver up to a further 28 affordable homes with an approximate total value of
$17.1 million.
4.3 The
Housing Reserve was established following settlement of the sale of
Council’s community housing in March 2021. Notwithstanding Phase one and
two, the final criteria has not been established due to staffing shortages. In
both previous reports (refer 4.1 and 4.2 above), the option of setting the
criteria as per the Phase one or Phase two criteria and being open for
applications on an ongoing basis was considered. Nelson Tasman Housing Trust
and Habitat for Humanity (Nelson) Ltd are both supportive of this approach. Of
note, the criteria is open to all registered Community Housing Providers and/or
local iwi trusts, with a local presence that are well-positioned to deliver new
affordable housing in Nelson. Following Phase one and two grants, $8.15 million
is available. As previously identified, the longer this money is held by
Council, the less value it has and the lower return on investment (less
houses).
4.4 Councillors
are invited to discuss this option and how best to progress the Housing
Reserve. The Urban Development Subcommittee cannot make decisions but could
make a recommendation to the Full Council meeting of 22 September.
5. Areas
of Responsibility
City Centre Programme
5.1 The
key achievement of the City Centre Programme is Te Ara o Whakatū –
the City Centre Spatial Plan. The Plan went through intensive pre-engagement
(81 meetings, plus written considerations) followed by a public engagement
process throughout most of 2021 and was adopted by Council December 2021 with
community feedback demonstrating 80% support and only 12% in opposition
(remainder did not state or neutral). Te Ara o Whakatū is a 30-year vision
for the city centre with eight key actions: seeing ourselves; streets for
people; great places; greener streets; raising residents; linked up laneways;
people at play; and precinct power.
5.2 The
Riverside Youth Pop-up Park next to the Elma Turner Library has been an
incredibly successful initiative of the City Centre Development Team. The idea
for the park stemmed from the results of Council’s Public Life Survey,
which showed of all the measured activities taking place in the city centre,
that less than two percent included children playing. The park features a pump
track for skaters, bicycles and scooters, a solar-lit basketball court, and an
imagination playground for younger children with large foam building blocks.
There is also table tennis, planters, picnic tables, youth hammocks, colourful
seating and shade sails. It has been a very popular addition to our city.
5.3 A
funding request to the Infrastructure Acceleration Funding (IAF) has been
submitted to advance the Bridge Street Linear Park, and a request to allocate
$2.5 million of Better off Funding towards a permanent City Playspace. The
current bus depot/terminal site was purchased by Council August 2022 to support
either inner city housing or the Playspace.
5.4 The
upper Trafalgar Street catenary lights and multi-function poles are a stunning
addition to this pedestrianised area. Despite some electrical issues which were
fixed under warranty, the lights create a spectacular atmosphere and are able
to be programmed to support different events. The seven ‘multi-function light poles’, hold
clusters of LED lights to achieve safe pedestrian light levels as well as bathe
the area in a range of different colours. Six of the poles support an overhead
series of cables with white catenary LED lights as well as banner arms.
5.5 City
Centre Development Programme Lead Alan Gray will be at the meeting and provide
a verbal update on the City Centre programme.
Housing
5.6 The
Housing Reserve has allocated Phase one and Phase two grant funding as outlined
in Section 4.
5.7 Council
undertook engagement with the community in 2021 on the proposed sale of 42
Rutherford Street and 69 – 101 Achilles Avenue to Kāinga Ora for a
mix of social (not more than 50%) and affordable housing. Following positive
engagement with the community, October 2021 Council approved the sale subject
to due diligence by Kāinga Ora. At the time of writing this is ongoing.
The IAF application proposal
includes an upgrade to the watermain that serves
Bridge-Rutherford-Halifax-Collingwood streets, an upgrade of the Paru Paru
wastewater pump station, and other related wastewater and stormwater upgrades.
This will bolster the capacity and resilience of the City Centre’s water
network so it can meet the demands of up to 850 extra dwellings, which also
supports the Kāinga Ora housing proposal. The IAF application has
successfully progressed to the negotiating stage of the application process. Council
has also signed a relationship agreement with Kāinga Ora which cements our
partnering on social and affordable housing projects.
5.8 Following
assessment by the Strategic Development and Property subcommittee, the
properties at numbers 6 and 8 Totara Street were deemed no longer required for
the purpose for which they were bought. Following a request for proposal
process, the properties were bought by Nelson Tasman Housing Trust who plan to convert the land area taken up by two
single houses unsuitable for redevelopment, into the site of six new houses
– a variety of two, three and four-bedroom homes. The development is set
to be an exemplar of housing intensification, demonstrating sustainable, energy
efficient and healthy homes and include mechanisms to ensure that the housing is
retained for at least 50 years.
5.9 Strategic Housing Advisor Lisa Gibellini
will be at the meeting and provide a verbal update.
Intensification
Action Plan
5.10 The
Intensification Action Plan (IAP) was adopted September 2020 and is reported on
annually. The four workstreams of the IAP are:
5.10.1 The Housing
preference workstream aims to support high-quality and well-functioning
intensification projects including those by other parties.
5.10.2 Regulation
workstream actions focus on ensuring the regulatory environment supports
intensification.
5.10.3 Infrastructure
actions focus on ensuring that infrastructure capacity is planned to provide
for intensification objectives.
5.10.4 Cost
actions focus on ensuring that Council’s financing and funding tools are
targeted to enable intensification.
5.11 The
next update on the IAP is scheduled for the end of 2022.
5.12 In
association with Community Action Nelson (CAN), it was proposed that regular
communication to the community (along the lines of the Bicycle Nelson Bays cycling
profiles) could be provided through Nelson City Council social media as a means
to proactively engage with the community and provide ideas and suggestions on
exemplars throughout the country. CAN are meeting with the communications staff
later this month to progress this.
Statutory
tools, initiatives, and projects
5.13 The
National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) came into effect in
August 2020. It replaced the National Policy Statement on Urban Development
Capacity (NPS-UDC). An annual monitoring report under the NPS-UD is required
for the Nelson Tasman urban environment. The next report for the year ending 30
June 2022 is due at the end of 2022.
5.14 The
Housing and Business Capacity Assessment was undertaken for the Nelson Tasman
urban environment to help inform the development of the Future Development
Strategy and to report to the Minister for the Environment on capacity. The
NPS-UD assessed Nelson and Tasman Region as a shared Tier 2 urban environment
acknowledging that Nelson and Tasman (primarily Richmond) operate as one
integrated and contiguous housing and business environment, despite its
territorial boundaries.
5.15 As
part of the Long Term Plan 2021-2031, Council consulted on a rating policy
change to address inequities in rating on large residentially zoned
landholdings. The policy, as it stood, provided for properties greater than
15ha but zoned residential to be rated as if they are zoned rural, while sites
under 15ha and zoned residential were rated as residential zoned land. The
amendment to the Policy that was adopted was to assist to incentivise the
conversion of currently undeveloped residential zoned land to market and
increase housing supply.
6. So
long and thanks for all the fish
6.1 The
subcommittee was established to help progress key priority areas of Council, in
particular housing, the city centre development and initiatives, tools and
projects that support intensification and social and affordable housing.
Initially the workstreams were under resourced, however this was addressed
through additional funding in the Long Term Plan 2021-2031. Due to staffing
vacancies however, these issues have not resolved and consequently some areas
within the purview of this subcommittee have not progressed as intended.
Nonetheless, there has been benefit in having a dedicated subcommittee who were
engaged on housing matters, in particular with the many engagement processes
undertaken with the community and focused engagement with housing providers. Unfortunately,
due to staffing constraints, we have frequently not had written reports
available at the meetings, and some processes have been delayed or not
progressed. Today’s meeting is no different with staff vacancies or busy
with emergency management. Nonetheless, I think we can look back and see some
significant progress and enhancements that we can all be proud of.
6.2 Thank
you to Her Worship the Mayor for supporting the establishment of the
subcommittee to highlight and accelerate progress in this critically important
area of Council and to Full Council for unanimously agreeing that housing was a
triennium priority. Thank you to the subcommittee members for your mahi on
housing, a key determinant of health, occupational, educational and wellbeing outcomes
for our community. Thank you also to those elected members who are not members
of this subcommittee for your ongoing engagement and support of our kaupapa.
Thank you also for your confidence in me as your Chair. Thank you too to the
staff and consultants who have helped progress the many important workstreams
of this subcommittee and for creating a pathway for a vibrant city centre.
Ki te
kāpuia e kore e whati – we succeed together.
Author: Judene
Edgar, Chairperson
Attachments
Nil
