Milestone for affordable housing process

The High Court has found the Queenstown Lakes District Council can address affordable housing through a proposed community housing plan change - an important milestone in an ongoing process, QLDC senior policy analyst Scott Figenshow said.

Three parties appealed last year’s decision of the Environment Court, which ruled that the Council could address housing affordability under the Resource Management Act.

Originally notified in 2007, the plan change would enable Council to evaluate new development to see if it had any effect on housing affordability.

“For the Council and the community it’s a way to ensure that a portion of the new housing supply meets the needs of the local workforce,” Mr Figenshow said.

The decision by Judge Chisholm confirms that Council has the authority to address the issue of housing affordability, he said.

The High Court decision stated “Consequently if the use or development of land within the Queenstown Lakes District has the effect, or potential effect, of pushing up land prices and thereby impacting on affordable housing within the district, the Council has the power to control those effects through its district plan, subject of course to the plan ultimately withstanding scrutiny on its merits.”

The High Court was not the final hurdle for the plan change, which must now return to the Environment Court for the more substantive hearing.

Mr Figenshow noted that over the last eight years, nine affordable housing stakeholder agreements had been volunteered by developments in Queenstown, Wanaka, Albert Town, Kingston and Cardrona.

“These deeds have secured the delivery of over 260 affordable homes over the next 15 or more years, in partnership with the Community Housing Trust and make it possible to leverage government funding,” Mr Figenshow said.

The first of these stakeholder agreements was signed with Jacks Point back in 2003, with 40 local residents helped to put down roots and own a home in the district through the programmes of the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust.