The proposal for a new apartment block in Mt Victoria, the first major housing development enabled by the new District Plan, demonstrates that the wealthy will be the only winners from changes that were supposed to bring about affordable housing.

LIVE WELLington has announced it will shortly lodge judicial review proceedings in the High Court.  These ask the Court to review the District Plan decision on character areas made by the Wellington City Council and the Minister for RMA Reform.

LIVE WELLington is an advocacy group for density done well.

The group (comprising more than 150 members) has been involved in the District Plan process from the beginning. 

LIVE WELLington believes that with smart urban design, Wellington’s iconic character areas can be retained at the same time as new, denser housing is introduced to the inner city and central city areas.

OPINION PIECE by Jane O'Loughlin, convenor of LIVE WELLington.

Very soon Chris Bishop, the Minister for RMA Reform, will announce his decision on the Wellington District Plan.

MEDIA RELEASE

22 April 2024

The Wellington City Council spent over $1.7 million on a set of experts to hear submissions on the District Plan, and then went on to ignore their key findings.

BLOG POST

It may not be dressed in fluoro lycra, but sometimes the furore over Wellington’s District Plan feels like the 80s all over again, say LIVE WELLington convenor Jane O'Loughlin.

(27/11/24) The ongoing frustration of trying to meet earthquake building standards was evident at a meeting we hosted on 22 February 2024 at St Peter’s Church on Willis. Here's our report of the meeting.

News that ‘a housing and urban growth precinct’ will be part of the new developments around Wellington’s Basin Reserve has been welcomed by LIVE WELLington.

BLOG BY PHIL KELLIHER.

Just two years ago the housing market was in a frenzy, with properties going for silly money. 

But now it’s the opposite.  For property manager Phil Kelliher, this was vividly illustrated when he noticed a large property in Mt Victoria listed for nearly one million dollars less than its RV.

Kāinga Ora has spent $800,000 hiring a vast team of lawyers, planners and architects to influence the outcome of the Wellington District Plan, drowning out local voices, says Wellington community and urban design advocacy group LIVE WELLington.

“Citizens who know and love their city and neighborhood attempt to get involved in the District Plan process however we struggle to compete with highly paid lawyers and planners flown in from other cities to argue for inappropriate planning rules that are not conducive to a liveable city,” says LIVE WELLington convenor Jane O’Loughlin.

The panel of Independent Commissioners at Wellington District Plan hearings (left) are well outnumbered by Kāinga Ora’s legal and planning team (right).

With a new Wellington city council now in place, it’s time to examine the views of our new councillors on urban form, housing and a liveable city.

During the election, the excellent website Policy.nz asked candidates around the country to submit their policies and priorities under a range of headings, including ‘housing and planning’.  Using this, LIVE WELLington has extracted the policies of our new Wellington City councillors.  This summary table is available here, and our analysis follows.