Contact: homebushresidents@gmail.com
Homebush Road Residents Group
Help us save the Ngauranga green gateway to Wellington.
Why replace an important ecological corridor with housing?
In its application (District Plan Change 68), Prime Property Group argued that changing the Open Space B zoning of Ngauranga Forest Block to allow a subdivision will fulfil a need for property in the area. There are two important points to be made about the claim:
- First, Khandallah has not been identified in the Council’s district plan as an area that should have further infill housing or new subdivision development. Rather, the area from Johnsonville north has been targeted as a suitable area for residential growth as outlined in the Northern Growth Management Framework.
- Second, the argument cannot be substantiated by property figures. Khandallah has one of the highest number of properties on the market. When apartment statistics which inflate inner city figures are excluded, only Karori has higher property availability.
- Currently, Khandallah has far more sections for sale than elsewhere. More specifically, in the Cashmere locality, where Prime Property Group proposes to subdivide, there are sections and houses for sale that have been on the market for long periods despite the claimed appeal of having “attractive” sites.
Not only is it difficult to make out a supportable case for more housing in Khandallah and specifically in the Homebush Road area where property is stagnant, the nature of current property development a short distance away in signals the kinds of housing that will potentially be built. One possibility is apartments – the following photograph shows an apartment block in Mandalay Terrace. Is this sort of development preferable to a green entry to the city?
Again in Mandalay Terrace, the following photo shows the face of high cost housing on what were advertised as attractive sites. Houses are on small sections where scope for planting is limited and views are compromised by close proximity. The sections in this subdivision are of similar size to those that are tentatively proposed by Prime Property Group.
In the short to medium term, the Prime Property Group’s argument that there should be additional sections available in Khandallah does not stack up.