They're meant to be in a bipartisan accord on intensified multi-storey housing – but National and Labour are boxing at shadows. When they go low, we go lower ...
First, Labour and National agreed to remove consenting barriers to building towering apartments blocks throughout NZ's five biggest cities, with steep rooflines casting a shadow six metres above the property boundary.
Then last week on Thursday evening, a select committee published its report after public submissions, in which the parties agreed to lower the shadow to five metres.
On Friday morning, National's new deputy leader Nicola Willis confirmed to Newsroom they would lower it still further, though she said the party was still seeking more information on how much further it should go.
Today the Government steps into the shadow-boxing ring. It pre-empts National's new limit by confirming, in a statement to Newsroom, that it will lower the boundary shadow to four metres.
Ministers Megan Woods and David Parker said they could drop the limit by a third, without undermining their goal of encouraging housing intensification in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
“We listened to what submitters to the select committee had to say and sought advice on what the impact of lowering the height of buildings in relation to boundary would be on yield of housing," the duo said.
"Modelling by PWC and officials on a change of the rule to four metres, plus a 60 degrees recessionary plane, suggested it would have a minimal effect on the number of new homes built.
"We told the committee chair on Friday that we would change the rule.
"This is a pragmatic response to allay concerns about the impact of new housing on neighbouring properties and is lower than the select committee recommendation of five metres – and two metres lower than the original 6 metres proposed in the bill.”
