The full list of changes Wellington City Councillors will try to make to the city’s District Plan at today’s meeting.

The Spinoff has been leaked the list of amendments councillors are planning to introduce at today’s District Plan meeting to overturn the independent hearings panel’s recommendations for the future of housing in Wellington. 

If most or all of these amendments pass, it would represent a huge rejection of the IHP’s most controversial decisions, and a major step forward for housing capacity and density in Wellington.

Each amendment will be voted on separately and will need a majority of the 16 councillors and two mana whenua representatives to pass. Mayor Tory Whanau is chairing the meeting so will have the tie-breaking vote. 

The meeting starts at 9:30am. The Spinoff will be live-blogging all the key moments of the meeting, along with a YouTube livestream.

Here is the full list of amendments, with some added analysis.

Amendments by councillor Rebecca Matthews

Keep Adelaide Road in the Centre City Zone

The IHP changed Adelaide Road to a Mixed Use Zone, which meant slightly lower height limits and less development potential south of the Basin Reserve. This change would add more of Newtown and Mount Cook to the centre city walking catchment (where six storey apartments are allowed by default), because the catchment is measured from the edge of the Centre City Zone. 

Revert back to a 15 minute walking catchment from the centre city 

This would undo a list of minor changes by the panel to reduce the area covered by the centre city walking catchment. It would also give the entire catchment area a height limit of at least 22m, undoing any changes where the IHP recommended a lower height limit. 

Shrink character areas back to 85 hectares

This is a major change and the character areas back in line with the originally proposed District Plan. The IHP wanted to expand character areas to 206 hectares. For context, character areas currently cover 306 hectares, or 88% of all inner city residential land. 

Add Hay Street, Oriental Bay to the high density zone

A group of residents from Hay St, Oriental Bay, one of the wealthiest residential streets in Wellington, convinced the IHP to include a density exception for their street because it is in an “iconic location”. 

Reject lower height limits in Moir and Hania St, Mount Victoria

A group of residents from these streets convinced the IHP to introduce a new, lower height limit covering their street to protect the “amenity, character and heritage values”. 

No minimum front or side yard setback requirements

This is a big one, especially for townhouses. Removing setbacks means developers can build houses right up to the footpath and fences. This is common in UK-style terraced houses. It means more of the section can be used for housing, and potentially means more homes can be built on each piece of land. 

Amendments by councillor Nīkau Wi Neera

Designate the Johnsonville train line as mass rapid transit 

This would allow high-density zoning within a ten minutes walk of all the train stations along the line: Crofton Downs, Ngaio, Awarua Street, Simla Crescent, Box Hill, Khandallah and Raroa.

Expand walking catchments around the Kāpiti train line

This would enable high-density zoning within a 10 minute walk of the stations, rather than the five-minute walk the IHP recommended. This would only apply to stations within the WCC borders: Takapu Road, Redwood and Linden.

Amendments by councillor Ben McNulty

Remove the heritage listings for all the following buildings: The Gordon Wilson Flats, the Miramar Gas Tank, Emeny House, Khan House, Olympus Apartments, Wharenui Apartments, Robert Stout Building, Primitive Methodist Church, Johnsonville Masonic Hall, Star of the Sea Chapel

All these buildings were put forward on the grounds that the heritage values aren’t sufficient enough to balance out the potential downsides of listing them. Most of the buildings are earthquake prone or damaged. Some, like the Gas Tank, and just ugly and getting in the way of new developments. Each building will be voted on separately. 

Amendment by councillor Sarah Free

Remove high density zoning around Kilbirnie

Kilbirnie is a Metropolitan Centre, so is required by law to zone for six-storey apartments within a walking distance of the town centre. For a bunch of complex reasons about resilience and ground conditions, Kilbirnie didn’t originally have a walking catchment, and it was added late in the IHP process. This means there was no public consultation. Free wants to make sure people get a chance to have their say about the changes to Kilbirnie, although the high density zoning seems almost certain to go through regardless. 

Amendment by councillor Iona Pannett

Instruct council officers to write a report about affordable housing 

Pannett wants council staff to consider some options to support affordable housing. For example, requiring new developments to make a financial contribution towards affordable homes, or requiring a minimum proportion of new homes built in some areas meet affordability thresholds. This is called inclusionary zoning, and it’s a controversial point in urbanism; some people think it’s a good way to get cheaper homes in the market, others think it makes new developments less attractive for builders and defeats the wider goal of increasing overall housing supply. 

Amendments by mayor Tory Whanau 

Changes to noise limits for music venues and prayer calls

Instruct council staff to report back on options to ensure music venues aren’t affected by noise limits. This has been an ongoing issue for some venues, including Meow, San Fran, and Valhalla. Whanau also wants changes to allow broadcasted calls to prayer to be played from loudspeakers on mosques and other religious buildings. 

Changes to Brooklyn zoning 

Instruct council staff to report back on the most suitable density zone for central Brooklyn.

Adding future mass rapid transit routes

Instruct council officers to write a report about how to protect a future mass rapid transit route. This is basically about the now-cancelled light rail through Newtown, Berhampore and Island Bay. Whanau still wants some form of mass rapid transit to happen, which could affect housing capacity. 

Changes to hydraulic neutrality requirement

This is some very technical three waters stuff, but it basically relates to making sure new developments don’t cause issues with stormwater flows that might cause flooding or pollution.