A bird's eye view of Tauranga from Papamoa, one of the city's fastest-growing housing areas in recent years. Photo / George Novak
New Government regulations could have dire results for Tauranga's housing crisis, with a city leader warning of higher house prices, more financially stressed households, greater homelessness and essential workers unable to afford to live in the city.
Tauranga City Council is seeking special provisions in the new regulations to help enable its development plans at Te Tumu and Tauriko West. Without this, the progress of these large housing developments could stop.
In 2021, the Ministry for the Environment sought feedback on a proposed drafting of amendments to wetland regulations in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Regulations 2020.
The regulations would apply to all freshwater, including groundwater, and receiving environments as part of a wider Te Mana o te Wai concept.
However, the Government programme, aimed at recognising and protecting the importance of water and freshwater, was also expected to impact urban development.
This was by creating greater control of vegetation clearance, earthworks, and water takes, uses or discharges that could result in the degradation to a wetland.
The drafting prompted more than 6000 submissions, including a proposal to allow Tauranga to continue to build without any loss to wetlands - a potential five-year exemption from a key part of the new rules.
The new amendments to the document are now out for consultation, with the opportunity for feedback closing on July 10.
Ministry environment report Managing our Wetlands: Policy Rationale for Exposure Draft Amendments 2022 stated that developments at Tauriko West and Te Tumu were not on land zoned residential or business and the ability to rezone these areas for urban development was expected to take some time.
As there was no intent to delay urban development, Tauranga's proposed exemption - to allow for planned development - was recommended, the report stated.
"This will enable urban development specifically listed in the BoP SmartGrowth programme to continue while TCC undertakes [rezoning]."
The "provision" was expected to last five years from the day the new regulations came into effect.
Council general manager of strategy, growth and governance Christine Jones said the existing freshwater National Policy Statement created "significant new planning hurdles for urban growth in Tauranga, especially in the Tauriko West and Te Tumu areas".
The two developments were expected to collectively provide about 10,000 new homes considered "essential" to address Tauranga's housing shortfall.
In September the council wrote to Environment Minister David Parker to advise that it was unable to meet the housing obligations under the government's National Policy Statement on Urban Growth.
The letter warned the city was facing a critical housing shortfall and was struggling to cope with a skyrocketing population.
Without the special provision, the council would have had to "question whether there was a pathway for development to proceed", Jones said.
"If changes are not confirmed ... Tauranga's housing supply issues will become significantly more acute," Jones warned.
"This will play out in many ways over time, including even higher house prices, more financially stressed households and more people pushed into long-term rental arrangements, public housing and various forms of homelessness.
"Key workers like nurses and school teachers will struggle to be able to live in the city."
However, Jones said the concern should not be interpreted as the council promoting urban growth over the environment.
"The issue really revolves around the definition of wetlands now capturing marginal areas that previously would not have been considered wetland, as well as the inability of offset by creating additional wetlands in one area to address the loss of these marginal areas," she said.
The lack of appropriate zoning was due to processes still being worked through for Te Tumu, she said.
This included work to address the Resource Management Act requirements to give effect to National Policy Statements that affected "challenging provisions" associated with freshwater, Jones said.
The council was mindful of separate Te Tumu landowner conversations about the development of Māori land and the provision of infrastructure corridors across Māori land to support development".
Tauriko West had not been rezoned due to transport planning processes and the same freshwater issues affecting Te Tumu.
Once these issues were addressed, the council planned to notify rezoning of both areas in 2023, Jones said.
Sustainable Bay of Plenty executive director Glen Crowther said the situation was a "genuine dilemma" but one that raised his concerns nonetheless.
"It seems like they [the council] put all their eggs in one basket, now there's no Plan B or C. The Smartgrowth plan says we have to do Te Tumu and Tauriko and intensify the city. It feels like it's a bit out of control ... that growth is managing us, it's not us managing growth."
Crowther said he was concerned the five-year lag would allow for the council to do whatever it wanted unchecked in potentially vulnerable environments.
"I would be much more comfortable with that five-year exemption if it was on a case-by-case basis, where there was some independent advice that was required in order to get the exemption."
In response to Crowther's concerns, Jones said the situation was effectively the result of the Resource Management Act "not working".
"The reality is that the greater Tauranga area is subject to high growth and we have an obligation to manage and provide for this growth in a planning context that has become much more complex in recent years under the RMA."
A Ministry for Environment spokeswoman said the proposal gave developers and councils the ability to apply for consent for activities associated with urban development in or around a wetland and where there would be a detrimental effect on the wetland.
She said the National Environment Standard for Freshwater contained strong rules which meant, for example, if a developer wanted to carry out earthworks that would result in the partial or complete drainage of a wetland, this would be banned.
However, there were "consent pathways" for certain purposes or specified infrastructure such as urban development to acknowledge some situations, so long as the wetland loss was compensated for elsewhere.
The spokeswoman said the proposal would not delay the effect of the wider National Policy Statement at Te Tumu and Tauriko - protections and consents were still needed - but the ministry would continue to work with Tauranga City Council on progressing these areas.
• To make a submission, search the ministry's website for wetland provisions in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F).
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