Locals are being priced out of sensible housing solutions by sky high council fees and red tape which is pushing new builds onto the flat fertile land we should be protecting.
One resident told me it would cost him $90,000 in council fees alone just to subdivide a piece of land and that figure included a $14,000 bill for a 15 square metre driveway entrance that should have cost under $4,000 in the real world. This is before a single nail is hammered or concrete poured.
When intensification on already zoned land is made this difficult and expensive it is no wonder people give up and look to build on cheaper flatter land outside town boundaries often on the very fertile soils that underpin Hawke’s Bay’s horticultural economy.
A smarter approach would be to open up unproductive lifestyle blocks on hill country to more housing by reducing the minimum section size from 10,000 square metres to 2,500 square metres. This could create hundreds of new building sites without touching our most productive soils. Many of these lifestyle blocks are not serviced by stormwater or sewage systems which means council’s ongoing costs are minimal.
Council must also increase the number of approved small contractors so residents have more choice and can get competitive prices for work. Traffic management rules need to be applied with a horses for courses approach.
The current system is over-complicated and expensive. Take Conway Place in Hastings as an example. A leaking water pipe on this quiet no exit street saw three separate trucks sent to the scene — a Topline traffic management truck with two staff and six cones, who then sat in their vehicle watching the repair; a hydro excavator with two staff; and finally a Fulton & Hogan truck with two staff to repair and fill the hole. Residents told me this was the fourth time council contractors had come back to fix the same leak. The total cost to ratepayers could easily have exceeded $10,000 for a job that could have been done in the old days by a plumber or two, a spade, and a few cones for a fraction of the cost.
We also need to remember that every additional ratepayer we create within our existing infrastructure brings more income to Council. Development contributions from infill housing should be ring fenced for upgrading existing infrastructure like roads and pipes. We do not need to be spending these funds on more parks and playgrounds when we already have plenty.
Until council makes it easier and cheaper for locals to build where we already have infrastructure we will keep losing prime horticultural land to housing sprawl.
It is time for a practical approach that
Slashes excessive fees for small scale subdivisions
Opens up unproductive hill country and lifestyle blocks for housing
Expands the pool of approved small contractors
Applies common sense to traffic management rules
Cuts waste and duplication in simple repair jobs
Ring fences development contributions for core infrastructure upgrades
Protects our fertile Heretaunga Plains for future generations
Hawke’s Bay deserves better than a planning system that makes the easiest option the worst one for our region’s long term future.
