Why are new developments being approved in Lower Hutt with no car-parking?
In August 2020, the government released a National Policy Statement (NPS) on Urban Development. What is an NPS? It’s a legal document that enables central government to prescribe objectives and policies to local councils, that they must follow. You can read the full NPS on Urban Development here, but basically policy #11 states that all councils must not set any car parking requirements, other than for accessible car parks. This means the previous rules in our district plan that required a number of carparks per dwelling had to be removed from our rule book.
I don’t agree that this blanket rule is a good thing. It means we’re seeing intensification where land is the cheapest, and not by coincidence that land is the furthest from good public transport and amenities. This means we are getting developments happening in places, where most people actually will need a vehicle. Sure, developments opposite a train station, or in the CBD, can get away without several carparks per unit. But there shouldn’t be one rule for the whole city, but that is what the government has mandated that every council must do.