Richard Gaddum: The 3000 homes Hawke’s Bay doesn’t need to build

Urban sprawl has been happening in Hawke's Bay for decades. Photo / NZME

The Future Development Strategy (FDS) in Hawke’s Bay is basically setting a plan now to house our people, while catering for the growth of our region for the next 30-plus years.

It has involved an extensive (and expensive) process of an Auckland consulting company giving the three councils (HDC, NCC & HBRC) guidance on a plan, a chance for the public to have their say through submissions, the engaging of five independent commissioners that first of all heard oral submissions from submitters, then made recommendations to the three councils.

That process is now over; recommendations have been delivered; councils have deliberated over them and are going to ratify those recommendations individually in June.

So where are we at?

It is estimated that a total of 16,320 houses are needed for housing for the FDS within the existing residential boundaries and additional Greenfield developments.

All the Greenfield areas that have been recommended are almost all from the old Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Strategy (HPUDS) and all are on highly productive land; LUC Class 1, 2 and 3 soils.

All are on the fringes of Napier, Hastings and Havelock North, thus continuing what all previous councils have done by continuing urban sprawl over our precious, highly-fertile soils.

With all the Greenfield areas recommended, we now have a housing capacity of a conservative 19,235 dwellings. So, this is almost 3000 homes too many from the estimated 16,320 needed.

In summary, if we have too much capacity on highly fertile land (almost 3000 houses), why is all this fertile land needed now?

Surely it is logical to cut back on the recommended areas and plan for more growth in the future if the need requires?

Napier is recommending areas that have previously been flood-prone (Riverbend Rd, The Loop and South Pirimai) and a huge area that is either at sea level or below it on Ahuriri Station.

Conversely, Hastings persists on growing houses on our best, highly fertile soils while avoiding planting houses on unproductive land.

This is not only a tragedy for our regional economy, it is also devastating for our future generation’s sustainability.

In September 2022, the National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land was passed into law. This document’s sole purpose is to protect NZ’s elite LUC Class 1, 2 and 3 fertile soils at a national level. There is an exception though. Highly productive land can be built over so long as there are no other alternatives on unproductive land.

The HDC say that the areas in the FDS are all from HPUDS so they are exempt from the legislation. Really?

The whole FDS process has been extensive, expensive and hugely time-consuming. 139 submissions were submitted. 86 of those submitted spoke in front of the five commissioners in support of their submissions, and at the end of the day, the commissioners did exactly what the council officers recommended by just transferring all the areas from HPUDS over to the FDS.

The three councils would rightly say that they have followed the correct due process under the Local Government Act and they did all that was legally required of them.

One wonders now why we go to the trouble of making submissions?

It is very distressing that these councils as well as the commissioners didn’t have the foresight and the courage to “reset” how we grow this region.

Instead, we just have the same old planning decisions which continues to destroy what is our “Golden Goose” that this region’s economic lifeblood relies so heavily upon.

What a travesty.