Hastings
District Council: District Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee Meeting
Te Rārangi Take
Report to District Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee
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Nā:
From:
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Rowan Wallis,
Environmental Policy Manager
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Te Take:
Subject:
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Summary of Proposed
Government Changes from Going for Growth Policy
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1.0 Purpose and summary - Te Kaupapa Me Te Whakarāpopototanga
1.1 The coalition
government has just announced a raft of policy changes based upon their Going
for Housing Growth (GfGH) programme.
1.2 These changes form
part of Pillar 1 of the programme and will be supported by Pillars 2 and 3
which will be released over the course of the next year. Once implemented these
changes will have significant implications for the district plan.
1.3 The principal
components of Pillar 1 are;
· Requiring Tier 1
and 2 Councils to enable 30 years of feasible housing capacity, based upon high
population growth projections.
· Enabling
greenfield growth by prohibiting Councils from imposing rural-urban boundary
lines in planning documents. Investigating options to require Councils to plan
for 50 years of growth and be more responsive to private plan changes.
· Ensuring that
housing intensification is in the right places.
· Councils must
enable mixed use development across their urban areas. This does not include
industrial development.
· Council will be
unable to set minimum floor area requirements or require outdoor balconies for
apartments.
1.4 How do these
proposed new rules compare with current district plan polices and rules?
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Rule
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Current
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Proposed
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Housing Capacity
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District Plan identifies
greenfield land from the Growth Strategy that will be required within the 10
years life of the Plan. It is not necessarily zoned.
The HPUDS growth strategy
identifies land that will be required for the next 30 years but it is not
zoned. This is based on medium/high population projections.
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30 years supply of feasible
and zoned housing capacity based on high population projections
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Enabling greenfield growth
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Greenfield growth is guided
by our Growth Strategy and this provides a strong signal to the community
through both the RPS and the district plan that growth outside of these
identified areas would not be supported.
Policy PSMP5 “Establish
clear and distinct urban boundaries to prevent creep of urban activities into
the Plains Production Zone”
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Councils will not be able
to have a rural urban boundary and Councils are to be responsive to private
plan changes that would provide significant development capacity.
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Intensification in the
right places
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Tier 2 Councils are
required to allow heights and housing densities in line with the level of
accessibility of services or demand for housing.
This is the premise upon
which Plan Change 5 has been formulated.
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The Tier 2 requirements
will remain the same.
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Mixed use development
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Commercial activities
permitted in the residential zones are currently restricted to early
childhood centres, non-residential care facilities and homes for the aged.
Health care services are a discretionary activity, and other commercial
activities are non-complying.
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Council will be required to
enable a baseline level of small scale mixed (such as dairies and cafes)
across their urban areas i.e. not just confined to our medium density zones.
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Minimum floor area and
balcony requirements
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Currently the district plan
places minimum floor areas for residential units in the Central Commercial
Zone based on the number of bedrooms. In other commercial zones there is a
50m2 minimum floor area.
Above ground Outdoor areas
of 7m2 are also required.
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No floor area or balcony
minimums will be able to be required.
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1.5 What will this
mean for the district plan?
A number of these potential
changes will require more detail before we can properly understand exactly what
it will mean for current provisions of the district plan. However based on what
we currently know, the following changes will need to be made to the District
Plan.
1. Changes
to our Urban Strategy section (2.4) will be required to;
(a) Identify the
areas of land that are required to meet the 30-year supply of zoned residential
land. Clarification will be required that the zoning of this land does not mean
that services to the land will be available.
(b) Changes to
the objectives and policies to remove any reference to urban containment and
urban boundaries e.g. Policy UDP10 To identify distinct and clear boundaries between
the urban area and the Plains Production Zone.
2. Changes
to the Plains Strategic Management Area and Plains Production zone to remove
any policies that refer to urban containment and urban boundaries e.g.
Policy
PSMP5 Establish clear and distinct urban boundaries to
prevent incremental creep of urban activities into the Plains Production Zone.
3. Mapping
of zoned greenfield growth areas necessary to provide the 30 year supply.
4. Changes
to the residential zones to enable small commercial and mixed use activities to
establish. Whether these will have to be permitted or could be a controlled
activity to allow activities to be individually assessed and the setting of
conditions, won’t be known until the detail of the changes is released. How
would this impact on our current neighbourhood shopping centres such as Mahora
and Mayfair?
Ultimately if the detail of the government
changes results in the current district plan policy being inconsistent with the
new legislation it may necessitate moving the review of the Plains Production
zone up the priorities in the Environmental Policy workstream.
1.6 Timing
The detail of the changes
will not be released until early 2025 and there will be an opportunity to make
submissions on the Bill at the time. It has been signalled that the government
plans to have the legislation in place by mid-2025.
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2.0 Recommendations -
Ngā Tūtohunga
That the District
Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee receive the report titled Summary of
Proposed Government Changes from Going for Growth Policy dated 31 July 2024.
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Attachments:
There are no attachments for this report.
Hastings
District Council: District Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee Meeting
Te Rārangi Take
Report to District Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee
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Nā:
From:
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Craig Scott,
Environmental Planner (Policy)
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Te Take:
Subject:
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Commercial Strategy
Review
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1.0 Executive Summary
– Te Kaupapa Me Te
Whakarāpopototanga
1.1 The
purpose of this report it to seek direction from the Committee regarding the
development of new Commercial Strategy to replace the 2003 adopted Hastings District
Council Commercial Zone Review and Large Format Retailing Strategy 2003 –
2023 (the Commercial Zone review)
1.2 The
current Commercial Zone review document by McDermott Miller was developed to
guide the form and pattern of retail development in Hastings to grow a
sustainable retail economy, consolidate Large Format Retail (LFR) in the former
Nelson Park area, focus small-scale retailing in the Hastings CBD and encourage
precinct development, e.g. specialist clothing, hospitality, entertainment.
1.3 This
strategy has now been implemented. The LFR centre is developed, the inner CBD
has developed with small scale retail concentrated in the City’s central
blocks and the blocks have developed into precincts. There is now a very
different retail and commercial environment to that which existed at the time
the current strategy was developed and the new commercial strategy needs to
reflect the dynamic commercial environment.
1.4 As
part of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD),
Councils were required to undertake a Business Capacity Assessment, and for
Tier 2 environments such as Hastings it must:
Every
HBA must clearly identify, for the short term, medium term, and long term,
whether there is sufficient development capacity to meet demand for business
land in the region and each constituent district of the tier 1 or tier 2 urban
environment.
1.5 A
Business Capacity Assessment (BCA) was undertaken by Market Economics for
Napier and Hastings as required by the NPS-UD, which provided the following
high level findings:
· There
is sufficient commercial and retail plan enabled GFA (vacant capacity) over the
short term (including the competitiveness margin), but shortfalls emerge over
the medium and long term.
· Sensitivity
testing showed, 21% of redevelopment capacity would need to be developed in
order to ensure sufficient commercial and retail GFA over the long term
(including the competitiveness margin).
1.6 While
there is not urgent demand to provide for additional commercially zoned land in
the short term, the capacity assessment makes it clear that specific strategies
should be implemented to ensure our commercial land operates and is developed
in an efficient manner to ensure that additional demand can be contained within
existing footprints where possible.
1.7 Further
to this there are some specific questions being raised to Council around the
future of our commercial land, in particular:
· The
future development of the Havelock North Town Centre
· How
the continued development of Flaxmere Town Centre should fit into future
Commercial Strategies?
· The
efficiency of the Light Industrial land, particularly at Stortford Lodge.
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Inner city living and the options around utilising our centres for
intensification.
· Are
there additional requirements for large format retail.
· How
will the commercial strategy review interact with The Hastings City Centre
Strategy (implementation of street upgrades, green initiatives and enlivenment
projects etc)?
1.8 As
such a new commercial strategy is necessary to understand and direct future
commercial activity, inform the business land demand assessment and ensure that
the District Plan is fit for purpose and provide for the projected demand for
business land.
1.9 This
report concludes by recommending that the District Planning and Bylaws
Subcommittee approve the scoping of a Commercial Strategy with a view to
developing a new Commercial Strategy for Hastings to inform the future of
commercial land and activity to ensure that the District Plan provisions will provide
for the projected demand for business land in a way that best meets the
economic, social and cultural and environmental wellbeing of our District.
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2.0 Recommendations - Ngā Tūtohunga
A) That
the District Planning and Bylaws Subcommittee receive the report titled Commercial
Strategy Review dated 31 July 2024.
B) That
the Subcommittee provide guidance on the scope of the future Commercial
Strategy Review.
C) That
the Committee endorse:
a. The
drafting of a scoping report for the development of a new Commercial Strategy
to inform the future of commercial land and activity.
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3.0 Background – Te Horopaki
3.1 The
current Hastings District Council Commercial Zone Review and Large Format
Retailing 2003 – 2023, was developed throughout 2002 and finalised in
June 2003. As part of the review a separate Hastings Retail Strategy was also
appended as part of the main Commercial Strategy. The Commercial Strategy was
developed against a background of emerging Large Format Retailing pressures.
3.2 The
strategy included a number of instruments including Strategic Marketing,
Infrastructure Investment, Institutional Initiatives, a suite of district plan
change recommendations and a programme of actions.
3.3 Some
of the key outcomes of the strategy were as follows:
· Developing
a megacentre zone adjacent to the CBD
· Maximising
retail market share and related employment growth
· Developing
Hastings core CBD and entertainment area
· Differentiating
the central Hastings Commercial Zone into four quarters based on emergent
retail, cultural and leisure patterns and clusters
· Generating
increased retail consumption.
· Further
consolidation and expansion of the Hastings Commercial Zone under the Hastings
retail strategy, aiming to ensure the CBD does not become stretched towards
Stortford Lodge.
3.4 The strategy was
primarily focused on the Hastings central core, with a specific emphasis on how
large format retail in the city would be provided for. At the time, there was a
strong desire for large format to be located in Hastings, and the strategy was
undertaken as a means to understand how this would best be achieved in a way
that ensure the CBD vibrancy would not be eroded by an uncoordinated approach.
3.5 Most of the key
outcomes have now been implemented, noticeably the redevelopment of Nelson
Park, and the dividing up of the CBD into specific precincts for development.
Even where the strategy has not fully succeeded, it is considered that the
strategy has surpassed its useful life, and all strategic direction should be
reviewed and reconsidered to understand and deliver on the current pressures
facing our Commercial Zones.
3.6 Further to this, the
undertaking of the Business Capacity Assessment (BCA) as required by the NPS-UD
has provided clearer indications of the demand and supply pressures on our
commercial and retail markets. Some of the high-level findings from the BCA are
as follows:
· There
is sufficient commercial and retail plan enabled GFA (vacant capacity) over the
short term (3 years) (including the competitiveness margin), but shortfalls
emerge over the medium and long term (10 and 30 year horizons respectively).
· Sensitivity
testing showed, 21% of redevelopment capacity would need to be developed in
order to ensure sufficient commercial and retail GFA over the long term
(including the competitiveness margin).
4.0 Discussion – Te Matapakitanga
4.1 The influences on the
commercial strategy within Hastings are complex and varied. There are a number
of strategies and plans that either direct or would be directed by a commercial
strategy for Hastings. The image below shows some of the get documents informing
any commercial strategy review.
4.2
4.3 This suggests that
defining the scope of work will be critical in achieving an effective and
achievable Commercial Strategy. The officers are seeking direction from the
sub-committee as part of the scoping process to understand the breadth of
issues we wish the Commercial Strategy to cover.
4.4 The BCA modelling
suggests that the Councils have sufficient plan enabled business land capacity
to meet the 10-year growth requirements. However, some localised
insufficiencies (at a zone level) will appear, and it will be important to
monitor the uptake of land to ensure that the subsegments (of demand) are not
displaced.
4.5 At its simplest the
review should assess the findings of the BCA to understand and provide for
future retail trends and to inform a District Plan review for Commercial Zones.
However, at the present time we have a retail hierarchy in the district plan. Under
the hierarchy the Hastings City Centre is the principal commercial focus for
the district with the Havelock North and Flaxmere town centres being second
tier commercial areas and then the smaller suburban shopping centres, such as
Mahora and Mayfair, fulfilling neighbourhood functions. It is suggested
that one of the major issues for consideration on the scope of the review
should be whether such a hierarchy still has relevance in this
environment.
4.6 This is particularly
important given that the latest Going for Housing Growth government programme
is to require Tier 2 authorities (of which Hastings is one), that they must
enable activities such as cafes, dairies and other retail across their urban areas.
4.7 Additional questions
around scope could include, but are not limited to;
· The
interaction with the city centre and CBD strategy and whether consolidation is
required
· the
future demand of large format retail;
· the
future use of light industrial zones, particularly at Stortford lodge,
· the
redevelopment of Flaxmere and Havelock North;
·
the continued development of the Hastings CBD precincts; inner city living; and
· the
outer commercial zones and the Suburban Commercial Areas.
4.8 This report seeks
guidance from the committee on the potential scope of the Strategy Review, and
whether it should be at a higher level or focussed on a sustainable retail
environment. The second part of this report is to seek approval for
staff to undertake a scoping report to start fleshing out these issues. We
would look to report back to the committee during the development of the
scoping report, to seek guidance of the issues that a future commercial
strategy could cover.
4.9 Finally, it should be
noted that there is an existing process to review the City Centre Strategy.
This document is largely focus on the redevelopment of the CBD core,
specifically on projects to ensure the vitality of our retail sector. The
Commercial Strategy is broader and more high level. However, a key part of the
scope and engagement of this process will be to ensure there is minimal cross
over, and to develop a comms plan which ensures that the public and business
can understand the key differences to ensure meaningful engagement.
5.0 Options – Ngā Kōwhiringa
Option One - Recommended Option -
Te Kōwhiringa Tuatahi – Te Kōwhiringa Tūtohunga
5.1 To
undertake a scoping report for a Hastings Commercial Strategy with a view to
replacing the existing ‘Hastings District Council Commercial Zone Review
and Large Format Retailing Strategy 2003 - 2023
Advantages
· Replaces
existing strategy which is now over 20 years old and passed the parameters
consider useful by its author
· Allows
for current demands on our commercial areas to be reviewed and reassessed.
Disadvantages
· Cost
of developing strategy and future plan changes
Option Two – Status Quo - Te Kōwhiringa Tuarua – Te
Āhuatanga o nāianei
5.2 Do
nothing and retain existing strategy
Advantages
· Existing
strategy still guides existing provisions even though most of the strategy is
implemented
· Cost
savings
Disadvantages
· Out
of date strategy may not provide for current and future pressures on our
commercial zones.
· No
trends such as online shopping are not addressed in existing strategy
· Other
strategies may adapt to address the gaps of existing strategy leading to
inefficiencies.
6.0 Next steps – Te Anga Whakamua
6.1 Undertake
a brief for a scoping report to the review of the commercial strategy.
Attachments:
There are no attachments for this report.
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Summary of
Considerations - He Whakarāpopoto Whakaarohanga
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Fit
with purpose of Local Government - E noho hāngai pū ai ki te
Rangatōpū-ā-Rohe
The Council is required to give effect to the purpose of
local government as set out in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002.
That purpose is to enable democratic local decision-making and action by (and
on behalf of) communities, and to promote the social, economic,
environmental, and cultural wellbeing of communities in the present and for
the future.
Link to the
Council’s Community Outcomes –
Ngā Hononga ki Ngā Putanga ā-Hapori
This proposal promotes the <Enter
text> wellbeing of communities in the present and for the future.
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Māori
Impact Statement -
Te Tauākī Kaupapa Māori
There are no known impacts for mana
whenua / iwi / tangata whenua above and or beyond the general community
population specifically in relation to this strategy review, there may be
additional consideration as part of the scoping document
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Sustainability
- Te
Toitūtanga
There are no implications at this stage
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Financial
considerations -
Ngā Whakaarohanga Ahumoni
There will be limited cost involved
in the development of a scoping report. There scoping strategy will better
determine the costs of the review of the commercial strategy itself. This will be sourced from
existing Planning and Regulatory budgets.
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Significance
and Engagement - Te
Hiranga me te Tūhonotanga
This decision/report has been assessed under the Council's
Significance and Engagement Policy as being a high degree of significance.
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Consultation
– internal and/or external - Whakawhiti Whakaaro-ā-roto / ā-waho
As a document of high significance, a high level of
engagement would be anticipated as part of the strategy. This engagement
could occur with key stakeholders as part of the scoping report. The scoping
report will determine the engagement process for the overall strategy.
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Risks
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REWARD – Te Utu
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RISK – Te Tūraru
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· Ensures clear direction for other strategies.
· Ensures development proposals are guided in the
appropriate manner.
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· Lack of direction leads to inefficiency in
developing other strategies.
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Rural
Community Board –
Te Poari Tuawhenua-ā-Hapori
Not applicable
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