Key aspects of a District Plan change to enable greater housing choice and supply in Rotorua are now in effect with other proposed changes open for submissions.

Housing for Everyone – Plan Change 9 is an important part of addressing Rotorua's critical housing shortage and creating thriving communities.

In particular, the Plan Change will better support intensification by enabling medium density living across most of our urban area, and high density living close to and within the city centre and in commercial centres.

Some of the new rules that give effect to the national Medium Density Residential Standards were required to be implemented by August 20.

Changes that are not part of the MDRS are being proposed through the normal plan change process and are now open for submissions with hearings to follow, ahead of decision-making.

'Encouraging intensification – building up rather than out – will help to increase housing supply and provide more choice for people to better suit lifestyles and life stages,” Rotorua Lakes Council DCE District Development, Jean Paul Gaston, says.

'Like elsewhere in New Zealand we're experiencing significant housing challenges. We are short of all types of homes and have limited land available that is suitable for residential development.

'We also need more choice of housing types – we need more smaller homes, for example, to cater to an increasing number of older people who no longer need or want to live in large family homes.”

One way to increase housing in Rotorua is to allow 'medium density” housing in all residential areas and the Government agreed to include the district in the MDRS.

These required changes to the Rotorua District Plan under the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021) took effect from August 20.

The intensification changes now in effect and the proposed supporting changes now open for feedback, aim to encourage increased housing to meet current and future demand.

'It's not intensification for the sake of it – we need to ensure that we enable and encourage housing in a way that also protects and enhances our district by using our land more efficiently,” says Gaston.

Changes now in effect and related to the MDRS:

Development standards in the District Plan have been changed in two of Rotorua's residential zones to enable landowners to build up to three homes of up to three storeys each on most residential sites, without requiring a resource consent.

See more about this change HERE and more about the MDRS HERE

Proposed changes open for submissions until October 14:

• Introducing a High Density Residential Zone to enable more people to live in areas with access to amenities and employment through active and public transport modes. This will involve amendments across all urban zones to align development heights and densities with the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (2020).
• Enabling increased development density in the Commercial and City Centre Zones by enabling a greater height in these locations.

• Amending rules for papakāinga development to make these developments easier to do and enable papakāinga to occur in both urban and rural areas;
• Amendments to better manage flood risk and geothermal hazards;
• Amendments to ensure protection of heritage values of cultural heritage features to protect these from inappropriate subdivision and development;
• Setting of financial contributions from development for reserves (NOTE: this does not refer to Development Contributions).

See more about the above proposed changes HERE

Nearly 30,000 property owners are being directly notified via email or by post as their properties are in zones affected by the changes. However, anyone can make submissions and people do not need to wait for direct notification to make submissions.

'Council undertook a significant programme of pre-notification engagement with the likes of developers, development consultants, iwi and community groups to create awareness and understanding among key stakeholder groups and encourage them to make submissions and we encourage others to also submit,” says Gaston.

Find out more and make a submission

Further information about the intensification changes now in effect and the proposed supporting changes is on Council's Let's Talk/Korero Mai platform HERE.

Specific information sessions have been scheduled for iwi, planning consultants, architects and designers, developers, real estate agents and valuers and community groups.

Groups or organisations that would like a council representative to present an overview of Housing for Everyone – Plan Change 9 and answer questions to assist in making submissions can email us at Policy.Planning@rotorualc.nz.