Nelson City Council has approved a plan change to allow the installation of a limited number of ultra low emission wood burners in some parts of the city.
The approval at a meeting last week marks the close of the Woodburner Plan Change process, which the council undertook in December 2015.
The plan change means that residents can lodge building consent applications to install an additional 999 ultra low emission burners (ULEB) in Stoke (airshed B2) and 599 in Nelson North (airshed C).
No additional ULEBs have been permitted for Nelson Central (airshed A) and Tahunanui (airshed B1) unless they are replacing an existing authorised woodburner.
Mayor Rachel Reese said that the plan change recognised improvements in Nelson’s air quality since controls were introduced in 2003.
The plan change will become operative on September 19.
(The Nelson Mail, Monday, September 12th, 2016)
Sections are as rare as hen’s teeth in Motueka.
The first two stages of Wakatu Incorporation’s Tane Pukekohatu and Puketutu subdivisions have sold out and work on the third stages of both will not start until summer.
Iain Sheaves, general manager, property for the incorporation which is the town’s largest residential developer, said the current demand for sections had been building over the last two years with buyers willing to commute to avoid the extra cost of buying in Richmond and Nelson.
Homes were also selling fast and under multiple offers, and there was strong numbers of registrations and expressions of interest from potential buyers.
Motueka is Tasman District’s second largest town and a place where prices are lower than regional averages. The semirural community was within commuting distance of Nelson and Richmond and close to the summer mecca of Kaiteriteri and Abel Tasman National Park.
Motueka’s median house prices rose 21 percent in the year to July to $502,000, second only to Richmond’s 30 percent rise to $537,000, but still making it comparatively affordable.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, September 14th, 2016)
It’s no secret that house prices have been rocketing in Nelson Tasman, but they’ve been rising at a faster rate in some areas than others.
In the past year, houses in the Maitai and the Brook have increased more than any other areas, according to data from Core Logic.
House prices in the Maitai increased by 14.6 per cent to a median of $500,850 in the year to August while properties in The Brook jumped by 13.4 per cent to a median of $396,900.
In comparison, Richmond saw 7.7 per cent growth and Motueka 8.2 per cent.
QV Nelson valuer Craig Russell said Maitai and The Brook are located on the periphery of Nelson City and are seen as affordable suburbs compared with central Nelson.
‘‘With entry level values rising significantly in Nelson City we have seen increased demand for families looking to purchase in the Brook and Maitai given lower house prices and still having proximity to a range of amenities,’’ he said.
Satellite towns Brightwater and Wakefield had also seen ‘‘big upward movement’’ over the past year - 10 and 11.5 per cent respectively.
‘‘Traditionally, the further out you go the better value you get but just because there’s been such a shortage people are extending their reach and where people wouldn’t normally go past Richmond now they’re going to Brightwater and Wakefield so you’re seeing upward pressure on prices in those areas as well,’’ Chaney said.
The only place in the region where median property values have dropped in the past year was Parapara in Golden Bay.
‘‘Parapara is typical of a number of beachfront settlements in Golden Bay and a few sales at any one time can give a false impression of the longer term trend in values.’’
Core Logic senior research analyst Nick Goodall said it was worth noting that the Maitai was a small suburb with a little more than 300 properties.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, September 15th, 2016)
An award-winning designer believes a home he is building on the edge of Moutere Inlet could be a blueprint for future coastal development.
But at least one neighbour is concerned the home, which failed to meet a number of Tasman District Council planning rules, received a non-notified consent .
Construction of George Hilgeholt’s four-bedroom home on a low-lying Johnstone Loop section was approved in June.
Immediate neighbour David Harvey said the proposal failed to meet the council’s exceeds maximum height requirements, was within the 10 metre road setback and within the council’s coastal environment.
Hilgeholt was a joint winner of the best regional new homes between 150 and 300 sqm in last year’s Resene Architectural Design Awards for his Atawhai home.
His planned estuary home was a series of separate relocatable pavilions on piles housing bedrooms and kitchen/living areas.
The four pavilions, surrounding a raised internal deck, would be built using structural insulated panels. The home’s floor level would be 4.4 metres above mean sea level.
The garage was raised 3.5m while wastewater and sewage would be managed via a gravityfed treatment bed located on a raised mound.
The council’s environment and planning manager Dennis BushKing said consent requirements ensured the development met the council’s planning rules.
Council rules around development on low-lying land subject to inundation had only been developed for Mapua and Richmond at this stage, Bush-King said.
Hilgeholt hoped to get building consent for the home next month.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, September 16th, 2016)
Fewer houses, no apartments or commercial space and more productive land make up Alan Trent’s revised plans for his staged 180-hectare Harakeke development in coastal Tasman.
The revised proposal is the third for landowner and US businessman, who purchased over 200ha of largely orchard land from around 2000. The June resource consent hearing for his staged Harakeke development was adjourned on the final day at Trent’s request.
The latest application focuses on 96 rural-residential house lots in five clusters.
Divided by Aporo Rd the planned development is bordered by Horton, Marriages and Permin Rds and lies across land zoned Rural Three by Tasman District Council.
Around 125ha, or 70 per cent of the development, would now be in productive land and open space.
The development’s website said the largest block of 31ha was suitable for pipfruit.
Some three kilometres of streams were to be restored and planted with the bordering, and erosion-prone coastal cliffs would be revegetated.
The hearing’s commissioners needed to be satisfied the staged development would not contribute to the gradual erosion of the rural character, he said. Trent’s revised plans would not go out for public submission, but were commented on by original submitters.
The resource consent hearing resumes at 9.30am on September 26 at Richmond’s Headingly Centre.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, September 16th, 2016)
Nelson’s housing accord has been given new life.
Nelson MP and Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith announced yesterday the scheme’s extension to December 31 in “high growth areas” Nelson, Tauranga and Auckland.
I have had conversations with the mayors of the relevant councils to establish what they would like to do in order to ensure these councils can continue to process consents for existing Special Housing Areas (SHAs),” Smith said.
The accord’s extension will allow resource consents for the Tahuna Housing Development on Tahunanui Drive and the Beach Road SHA, which neighbours the Ocean Lodge site, to be completed.
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said the extension was an “appropriate mechanism” for approved SHAs to proceed into the development stage. “It would be very unfortunate if all that work couldn’t proceed.”
He noted the extension would only allow SHAs previously approved by Nelson Cty Council to be processed. No new SHAs can be gazetted between now and December.
However, he said he was keen to pursue new housing accord with Nelson and Tasman’s mayors upon their election in October.
Housing Accords provide a fast-track method to increase housing supply.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, September 17th, 2016)
Knapps Lawyers will move its Nelson offices into the space where Chipmunks was on Hardy Street.
The site, handled by IMB construction is expected to finish in early December.
Knapps practice manager Tracey Buxton said the current premises was a “rabbit warren” and staff were looking forward to moving somewhere more modern. “It’s a good location, it’s got a high profile and we need more office space and it’s a ground floor as opposed to a first floor where we currently are.”
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, September 17th, 2016)
“Ever tried. Ever failed.
No matter.
Try Again. Fail again.
Fail better.”
Samuel Beckett