A Wellington resident told the city council deciding the future of the city's heritage homes that her years living in the properties left her with a respiratory condition.
A Wellington resident told the city council deciding the future of the city's heritage homes that her years living in the properties left her with a respiratory condition.
Stephanie Cairns blames her adult-onset asthma on flatting in heritage homes in the capital. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell
Wellington City Council is considering new rules - the Draft Spatial Plan - for where the city can grow, and what new buildings will be allowed.
The city's population is to grow by tens of thousands in the coming decades and the council is getting the public's view on its 30-year blueprint to manage the expansion.
Under the draft plan building heights could change drastically - a minimum of six storeys in the inner city, up to that height in many inner suburbs, and the removal of special protection for buildings in some "character areas".
It has sparked a heated discussion over how to protect heritage housing while allowing the city to have more density.
Stephanie Cairns says she flatted in a number of heritage home over the years and it was awful.
"I lived in a place in a place in Hataitai that had a literal swamp out the front next to my bedroom.
"I lived in a place in Newtown ... it was a rat infested, crumbling kind of old villa."
She said she was often sick with respiratory illnesses - taking weeks off work to recover - and now suffers from adult-onset asthma.
"I'm obviously very much in support of the spatial plan because ... heritage housing is pretty but I think we have to prioritise people's health, and affordability of housing, over that."
Housing market unfair - resident
Newtown resident Patrick Morgan said the housing market in the city was broken, unfair and unjust.
He said young people and the underprivileged were all but locked out.
"A few can make it but for most it's just an impossible dream and the people I talk to say it's kind of crushing, [they] don't even want to think about it ... it's depressing.
"So let's put that right."
Thorndon resident Rhys Weyburne said allowing the construction of multi-storey buildings in heritage suburbs would cause a mass exodus of owners having lost sunlight and privacy.
He said these properties would be snapped up by investors who could blanket the suburbs with ugly developments.
"I just think we need to be really careful about what we destroy so blithely, and just sit there and say that these lovely pre-1930s villas suddenly no longer deserve protection.
A Thorndon resident fears ugly developments may replace the suburb's gracious old homes. Photo: Wellington City Council
"As soon as you let one go the neighbours of the development that gets put there will sell out as well and you're just seeing what took 100 years-plus of tradition cleaned out in a matter of few years."
Call for a nuanced approach
Felicity Wong from the Historic Places Trust said councillors must take a nuanced approach and carefully weigh heritage issues with the need for more affordable houses.
"Let's not release from protection precious parts of the city ... unless you have to, and only do it if you're going to achieve the objectives that you really want which is affordable housing.
"You know, you're not going to do that in Mount Victoria."
Her colleague, Ben Schrader, said the construction sector was a major source of carbon emissions and made sense to retain the existing housing stock.
"The fear that we have is that if you take a clear-fell approach and saying 'everything's open in particular areas' that in fact you won't be creating a sustainable city because you'll be demolishing all those buildings and taking them out to landfills."
John Milford from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce supported removing the controls on pre-1930s' housing developments.
He said the plan was too conservative and in parts of the city 20-storey buildings should be allowed on certain arterial routes.
"That way you will actually force this to happen sooner because the more opportunity to build higher will push the land value up, which will actually mean that you'll actually get an action quicker than you will now."
There are three more public hearings on the plan with decisions to be put before the council in March next year.
