Hauraki District confirms subdivision and housing rules

Your land surveyed
with Brent Trail
Surveying Services Ltd

The Hauraki District Council has recently completed their public hearing process and notified its decisions on the District Plan.

The proposed changes come in two forms – reduced sizes for residential sites in several of their towns, and allowance for minor dwellings on many urban and rural sites. As well as freeing up more land for subdivision, the changes will assist in providing housing for single people and elderly or disabled family members in both rural and urban areas.

At the time of writing, the council’s decision was still subject to appeal to the Environment Court. Those that made submissions and are not happy with the council’s decision can appeal to the court within 30 days of notification.

Council has confirmed their goal of reducing their minimum residential section size to 450m2 in Paeroa, Waihi and Whiritoa from the 525m2 allowed earlier. This means finally we are back to a sensible size that unlocks the potential of many of the older quarter acre sections – land that’s currently ‘locked up’ and not available for housing. This still puts their minimum size larger than the 350m2 allowable in adjoining Western Bay of Plenty District and central areas of Morrinsville. The minimum section size remains unchanged at 525m2 in Ngatea and Kerepehi.

In an effort to allow more housing on existing sites in both the rural and urban areas, council is allowing the building of minor dwelling units on serviced residential sites above 650m2 in the residential areas and on rural sites between 2500ma2 and 40ha.

The minor dwelling units are limited in size to a maximum of 60m2 with additional garaging allowed. There are restrictions to control the effects on both the environment and neighbours. For example, both houses will have to use the same driveway, and in the rural zone the minor dwelling will have to be located within 10m of the main dwelling unless granted a specific exemption.

Hauraki has a minimum size of 40ha for new rural lots on the plains, which makes it difficult to subdivide there unless you have more than one house on your title or you are proposing a boundary adjustment with neighbours. Around Waihi there is a minimum of 6ha, acknowledging the need for smaller horticultural blocks. These rules are balanced by allowable subdivision in the foothill areas where you can often subdivide lifestyle blocks down to 5000m2 in size, with limitations on the number of blocks produced from each existing title.

If you are planning your future and wish to clarify any subdivision or land use issues, feel free to give me a call. I’m happy to discuss the situation with you to see if it is worth pursuing.

Brent Trail, managing director of Surveying Services, specialises in resource consent applications for subdivisions and land use across the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Coromandel. For further information, call 0800 268 632 or email: btrail@surveyingservices.co.nz

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