The community is to be consulted on plans to encourage higher density housing in central Richmond.
The Tasman District Council has been investigating the demand for medium-density housing in Richmond, and how best to encourage such development in suitable areas. With the help of the Richmond Residential Advisory Group, the council has identified the need to proactively support intensification and make changes to its policies and plans to improve the feasibility of medium density projects for developers.
Council Environment and Planning Committee chairman Stuart Bryant says community feedback has confirmed a desire for higher density housing options. “Over the past two years we’ve been talking to Richmond people, local housing providers and our advisory group and they’ve told us that they want the Council to encourage greater intensification.”
As a result, the council is to consult with the local community with the aim of beginning the formal process to change the rules in the Tasman Resource Management Plan by mid 2016.
Higher density housing is already provided for in the Richmond South and Richmond West development areas on the outskirts of town, and this process will improve on the existing provisions for central Richmond.
The major impediment to greater intensification across Tasman district currently is the limitations of the stormwater network. For this reason, the initial plans will focus on the parts of Richmond where stormwater modelling has been undertaken. The Council intends to investigate higher density zoning for the other parts of Richmond at a later time.
The council will also look to update its planning and zoning rules within the Richmond CBD, and intends to seek public feedback on this at the same time as the central Richmond intensification proposal. This is likely to take place after the Environment and Planning Committee discusses some of the options at a meeting on 19 November.
In the meantime, the Council is also planning to change the rules governing residential building coverage to allow buildings to cover 40 per cent of the site, up from the current 33 per cent, in Richmond, Motueka, Brightwater and Wakefield. Public consultation on this change will begin in late November, along with rezoning opportunities in Wakefield and Brightwater.
