Martin Schilt is trying to get his Ngongotahā Special Housing Area approved before the act expires.
What could be Rotorua's only Special Housing Area is one step closer after the developer filed his application with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Developer Martin Schilt is aiming to expedite a development at 31 Ngongotahā Rd under the Special Housing Areas Act which will expire in September.
He filed his application on the last possible day he could have, April 30.
"The application is down in Wellington. Now it's there I don't know what's happening, we'll just have to wait.
"It has to be through before September but it's in their hands now."
Initial plans for the 16ha site included 190 dwellings.
The housing development was launched on March 16 last year after Rotorua Lakes Council voted to recommend the site as a Special Housing Area (SHA) to the housing minister.
Developer Martin Schilt has filed an application to develop a section under the special housing areas act. Photo / File
The SHA process was expected to take three months but there were delays following flooding in Ngongotahā which meant the developer had to get extra reports.
If given the green light it will become the first special housing area under Rotorua's Special Housing Accord, and likely the only one given the act's expiration.
If approved, Schilt will have to go back to Rotorua Lakes Council to apply for resource consent.
The application is now with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, which investigates and recommends the establishment of SHAs. It will assess the application and provide Associate Housing Minister Jenny Salesa with a briefing on whether or not to establish the SHA.
From there it will go through a parliamentary process to be finalised.
That Cabinet process usually takes more than three months, longer for more complicated applications.
The SHA legislation is set to expire on September 16, meaning no new SHAs will be established after that date.
Those set up before then will have two years to have their consents fast-tracked.
The Rotorua Housing Accord was signed on August 31. It was designed to fast-track the consent process to allow houses to be built quickly and was proposed to ease pressure on Rotorua's housing stock and address affordability issues.
In doing this it overrides the normal resource consent notification requirements allowing the council to recommend the establishment of special housing areas under the act.
No appeals can be made to a judicial entity once a decision is made, but a judicial review can be sought.
