Horrendous housing policy will suffocate communities and regional development
In one horrendous policy, both Labour and National have ignored regional development and consigned major towns to permanent traffic jams, ghettos where families are living on top of each other, kids unable to play in the backyard, and vehicles blocking all residential streets.
* Every council in a “tier 1” city – Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch – will be required to allow medium-density housing on ALL residential land WITHOUT that resource consent process.
* It can be up to THREE-storeys high and cover up to 50% of a plot of land. It can feature up to THREE units, although each one will need “some type of outdoor area”. 🙄
* If councils wish to, they can amend these requirements to make them MORE permissive – ie allowing higher buildings – but they are NOT allowed to make them LESS permissive.
Meanwhile, regional towns will continue to suffocate and even die.
Former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, in his ‘Forgotten People’ address in 1942, said “….one of the best instincts in us is that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a house and a garden which is ours, to which we can withdraw, in which we can be among our friends, into which no stranger may come against our will.”
#backwardthinking
