Simon Nixon: Hastings should withdraw from urban strategy

Simon Nixon

The Hastings, Napier and Hawke's Bay Regional councils have been asked to sign off the first five year review of the Heretaunga Plains urban development strategy (HPUDS).

HPUDS is intended to minimise urban sprawl, which has merit, but the emphasis on favouring horticulture above all other parts of the economy is unbalanced and could inflict significant damage on the Hastings and wider Hawke's Bay economy.

While the growing sectors are core to the economy many of the jobs provided are seasonal, poorly paid and low skilled and in fact are so unattractive that the growing industry has to import thousands of workers from undeveloped third world Pacific countries.

The quality of employment offered likely contributes to our high levels of poverty and deprivation.

The claim recently made by the Mayor of Hastings (HBT April 20) and oft repeated that we have "some of the best soils in the world" seems unsupported by any authoritative supporting research.

While the Heretaunga plains are highly productive by New Zealand standards, New Zealand is considered to have quite poor soils.

The most recent version of HPUDS provides for a faster rate of population growth than previously anticipated and now estimates a further 10,600 new housing sites will be needed by 2045, up 2600 from the 2010 document.

Of these, 40 per cent are to be provided by intensification in the first 10 years rising to 60 per cent in the final 10 years, with 50 per cent to be greensfields dropping to 35 per cent and 10 per cent rural declining to 8 per cent.

If we are to achieve the intensification targets for the first 10 years an additional 214 dwellings a year will be needed at a density of 20-30 households a hectare, double that for greenfield developments.

Such concentration is often resisted by existing property owners who feel it will change the character of their neighbourhood in much the same way many object to building on the hills.

The strategy also calls for a balance in supply between Napier and Hastings, a requirement that seems to have no logic.

That Napier has already agreed to sign off is hardly surprising because the policy clearly prevents Hastings exploiting its natural advantages.

Hastings has more land on which to build both houses and factories and is providing the majority of new jobs.

Most importantly it is not threatened by natural hazards such as tsunami, liquefaction and the possible threat of becoming a coastal hazard zone if the predictions of climate change and rising sea levels eventuate.

Only last week at a public meeting in Napier the HBRC seemed enthusiastic about managed retreat from coastal areas.

Hastings councillors also need to ask whether agreeing to HPUDS risks the HDC becoming libel for compensation in the event of these risks eventuating, in the same way councils became partially libel for leaky homes.

Townhouses and apartments are another option and certainly these seem ideal in Napier where they can be combined with ocean views but they are not for everywhere or everyone.

Housing Corp past experience in both cities have been fairly disastrous and we do not want to impose Soviet style workers accommodation on our communities.

The issue of protecting the land is not new.

Many decades ago another Hastings Council also reasoned the best soils needed saving and built Flaxmere on stony unproductive land.

In doing so it created a suburb that is disconnected from the rest of the Hastings urban area and, as it turns out, was built some of the best grape growing land we have.

New housing is also needed to offset the ongoing conversion of residential areas to commercial use.

Agricultural activity is also contributing to rural land losses because of the need to build packhouses and coolstores.

Additionally it seems HPUDS is making land banking attractive, thereby restricting the availability of building sites, reducing competition and pushing up the cost of houses, exactly the type of activity government is threatening to legislate against in Auckland.

It seems somewhat contradictory that the main supporters of HPUDS seem often to own large dwellings on attractive sections in rural settings.

We need an economy based on more than just horticulture and putting all our eggs in one basket could easily see return us to the conditions we experienced following the freezing works closures in the 1980s and 90s.

To this councillor, HPUDS seems to have become a roadblock to the development flexibility needed to provide a vibrant economy.

Just why the Hastings Council has surrendered its sovereignty to the Napier and regional councils is unfathomable and, if possible, HDC should withdraw from the joint policy so we can get on with the job.

Simon Nixon is a Hastings District Councillor. Views expressed here are the writer's and not that of the newspaper.