TL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of a future as an affordable city for young workers yesterday, approving a massively upzoned District Plan that adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes close to the CBD and public transport links.
It was almost a complete victory for Wellington’s YIMBYs over its NIMBYs, and signified the culmination of a backlash to an Independent Hearings Panel report that ignored evidence that up-zoning improves rental and house buying affordability, as demonstrated in Auckland and Christchurch after the 2012-2016 earthquake rebuilds and the 2016 Unitary Plan respectively.
Final approval now rests with Housing and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, who is personally in favour of housing densification, but has battled a backlash from activists within National, ACT and NZ First.
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Elsewhere in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8.30 am:
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