Yesterday’s announcements by Housing Minister Chris Bishop have been welcomed by some developers, but others are less keen.
Architect and heritage developer Steve MacKnight said "on the surface" many of the proposed changes — such as requiring city councils to plan for 30 years of housing growth and new rules requiring councils to enable mixed-use developments in cities — sounded reasonable and worthwhile.
But he worried the changes could remove community input into issues such as heritage preservation.
"Heritage buildings often sit on prime sites on a reasonably sized block of land.
"If you’re saying you can develop that land further, the value of the land could go up and the pressure to demolish heritage buildings increases.
"Whether the council planning rules are still in place when it comes to heritage is a detail we need to know — any further pressure on prime spots could lead to a lot more demolition."
Allowing intensification for housing had many benefits, but "when it’s a broad-brush approach that’s one size fits all for the whole country, then we’re likely to see problems".
"We’ve got to be very careful with powers like this.
"You got to look at buildings and their setting — if you have a grand old historic home and you build granny flats around it, it’s going to diminish the heritage and the streetscape."
Some sites would be appropriate for development, he said.
"But if you take away the ability for councils and locals to have a say, you can end up in a real pickle."
Southern Heritage Trust chairwoman Jo Galer said the city council was already very good at recognising the need for heritage reuse, especially when it came to mixed developments of heritage buildings.
But she was worried the government’s push for intensification could lead to the loss of public input.
