Plan Change 33: Panel recommends against Mount Maunganui North 22m limit

An independent hearing panel has recommended against a controversial bid to increase proposed building height limits from 12 to 22 metres in parts of “iconic” Mount Maunganui North.

The panel has provided their recommendations
report for Plan Change 33 – a Tauranga City Council proposal that would allow more housing intensification in urban areas in response to the prior Government’s policy changes.

The council originally proposed limits of 12m in Mount Maunganui North but increased these to 22m (six-storeys) in the town centre and surrounds, and 16m further afield after submissions prompted new assessments.

The panel recommended retaining the 12m height limit and the zoning for the area as originally proposed when Plan Change 33 was notified.

At that time, the suburb was not proposed to have additional height over that described in the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) within the commercial zone or the adjacent high or medium-density residential zones.

The MDRS were designed to prevent urban sprawl and allowed for three houses up to three storeys high on most suburban sites without needing resource consent.

Common sense ‘finally being applied’ – developer

Classic Group director and Mount Maunganui resident Peter Cooney said in his view the panel’s acknowledgement that Mount Maunganui North should remain status quo under the MDRS was “good old common sense finally being applied to what has been a complete shambles in the whole process of this Plan Change”.

He said as a developer he should have “been jumping for joy” at the council’s proposal for higher limits but instead he opposed them.

Cooney said the Mount held an “iconic status” which provided character and amenities to Bay of Plenty residents, tourists and holidaymakers.

Places such as Arrowtown and Australia’s Byron Bay and Noosa provided similar character and amenities for everyone to enjoy and its residents “fiercely” protected this, he said.

“This is not about nimbyism.”

Cooney said in his view, Plan Change 33 would not create housing affordability.

“As soon as you go four storeys or five storeys, the cost of doing it in New Zealand is so great that you actually miss the target market.

“The product you end up finishing is like $1 million or $1.1 million, where it needs to be … $600,000 or $700,000.

“You’re just creating some really expensive, upmarket apartments that [are] creating no affordability but ruining the character of the place.”

Cooney said infrastructure issues needed to be solved before intensification and until there was a “Melbourne-style network,” most people would not be taking the bus or biking to work.

High-rise buildings would ‘squeeze out’ views of Mauao

A Mount Business Association press release said it was pleased the panel found the Mount town centre was different to other Tauranga commercial centres.

“Its primary function is a tourist and entertainment destination.”

Adding high-rises to the Mount’s main street would “squeeze out” and contract views of Mauao, the ocean, and Hopukiore / Mt Drury and its pohutukawa, it said.

In the press release, Mount Matters Residents Group spokesman Barry Brown said he believed common sense and good planning had “prevailed” with the panel’s recommendation.

Increasing height in Mount Maunganui ‘will not maintain existing character and amenity’

Tauranga City Council city planning team leader Janine Speedy said the commissioners would decide whether to accept the panel’s recommendations at a meeting on May 20.

Speedy said each rejected recommendation must be referred to the Minister for the Environment to make the final decision. Accepted recommendations would become operative in the Tauranga City Plan.

She said the panel “largely accepted” the council’s final proposed Plan Change 33 apart from six points.

These included retaining the original proposed heights and zoning for Mount Maunganui North.

The report said the panel heard from various submitters and witnesses for and against the increased heights and density within the Mount Maunganui North area.

In response to submissions seeking greater height and density, the council did more assessments which led to changes, including increasing the height from the 12-metre notified height to 22 metres in the commercial centre.

It also included “upzoning” and increasing the notified height from 12m to 22m for residential land within a 400m walkable catchment, and to 16m for residential land within 400m to 800m.

The panel’s findings said none of the economic experts it heard from described Mount Maunganui centre “as a typical town centre”.

“It is unique in Tauranga, and potentially within New Zealand.”

While the panel accepted a view that high-density housing should be conveniently situated within easy walking distance of commercial centres, amenities and open spaces, “we do not take this to mean that all areas within walking distance of such facilities should be zoned high-density”.

“Increasing the permitted height within the area will not maintain the existing character and amenity of the area,” the report said.

The panel considered it was “more appropriate” to retain the heights and zoning as originally proposed by the council when the plan was notified.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.