Council meeting decisions
Mayor seeking housing targets agreement with new Government
Mayor Tania Tapsell will write to the Minister of Housing to seek a housing targets agreement with the new Government.
The Mayor told yesterday’s Council meeting she met with the new Minister of Housing Chris Bishop, Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka and Rotorua MP Minister Todd McClay late last year and discussed Rotorua’s needs.
She had followed that up with a letter that reinforced the local housing situation and needs and mentioned key ways the council and government could work together to deliver better housing solutions for the people of Rotorua.
She reinforced the need for the local community to have confidence that only locals would be placed in government housing in Rotorua and noted a request for an allocation of the Income Related Rent Subsidy for tenants in the council’s pensioner housing.
The letter sought a partnership approach to ending the use of motels for emergency housing and government agency support to maintain Rotorua’s reputation as a leading tourism destination by ensuring tourism accommodation was appropriately used.
She said she had indicated Council was supportive of the ‘housing performance incentives for council’s’ outlined in National’s Going for Housing Growth Plan and would support build targets being included in a housing plan for Rotorua.
The Mayor said last year’s meeting and the letter reflected the start of Council’s relationship with the new ministers who she said were very agreeable to finding shared outcomes to work towards.
The Mayor tabled her letter yesterday during an update on next steps for urban planning to meet local housing needs and align to the new Government’s housing policy.
The policy will require councils to bring more land forward for housing and will simplify planning rules to make resource and building consents for new houses cheaper and faster.
Through Council’s housing intensification Plan Change (PC9), Rotorua will likely meet the Government’s aim to ensure councils have 30 years of housing capacity and enough land set aside to meet demand targets, a report for today’s Council meeting notes.
Rotorua Lakes Council moved quickly to address the district’s housing shortfall and planning and zoning constraints through a series of actions that included re-zoning of Pukehangi to enable development there (Plan Change 2), requesting Rotorua’s inclusion in the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), increasing pre-consent application support for developers, and PC9.
Council also received Government funding for infrastructure to support housing and has adopted a Future Development Strategy (FDS) detailing how it plans to provide enough land for projected housing and industrial/commercial growth over the next 30 years.
The FDS provides sufficient development opportunity to potentially move Rotorua to a housing sufficiency surplus.
A review of Council’s Housing Business Assessment (HBA) following upcoming decisions on PC9 would confirm this and Council could then also consider opting out of the MDRS and programming of any further District Plan changes that may be needed, the report to Council says.
In the short-term, it says, there is an opportunity to engage directly with the new Minister of Housing and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on some form of agreement on housing targets and corresponding incentive funding.
Go to p29 of the Council meeting agenda to view the full report on this matter and go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
View the presentation slides related to this matter here: going-for-growth-presentation.pdf (PDF, 431KB)
Approval given for Councillor Wang to join Mayor in Taiwan
Mayor Tapsell and a delegation has been invited to attend the 2024 Smart City Summit and Expo in Taiwan in March, with the majority of costs covered by the hosts. This also provides an opportunity to promote Rotorua and seek business and cultural relationships at minimal cost to ratepayers.
Yesterday Council approved some related travel costs and that the Mayor and Cr Wang be supported to extend their time in Taiwan to enable them to attend an event promoting Rotorua as a tourist destination, meet with representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Environment and Education, and attend meetings to discuss establishing a sister city relationship with Pingtung County in southern Taiwan – a place Māori delegations have visited for many years to re-establish original links between Taiwan’s indigenous people and Māori.
The invitation sent by the Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Auckland to attend the event covers travel and accommodation for the Mayor and accommodation and attendance for up to six delegates.
Mayor Tapsell would like Cr Fisher Wang, New Zealand’s only Taiwanese Kiwi Councillor, to attend as her one delegate.
The Smart City Summit and Expo (SCSE) is one of Asia’s largest hybrid smart city events. It is recognised as an established business to business, government to government and business to government platform and network, with a focus on making urban development smarter and more sustainable.
The 2024 SCSE will include opportunities for Mayors and city leaders from around the world to meet and collaborate, and Mayor Tapsell has indicated to hosts that she intends to accept an offer to speak about Rotorua at the Summit.
Go to p40 of the Council meeting agenda to view the full report on this matter and go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
Also on the agenda . . .
Financial update:
Elected members received an update on the council’s financial performance for the six months ending 31 December 2023.
Go to p14 of the Council meeting agenda to view the full report on this matter and go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
View the presentation slides relating to this matter here: financial-presentation.pdf (PDF, 584KB)
Long-term Plan 2024-2034 – supporting information:
Council approved draft Significant Forecasting Assumptions, a draft Environmental Strategy and a draft Asset Management Policy as supporting information to help guide the development of the Long-term Plan. The documents will be available for feedback during public consultation on the Long-term Plan, in April.
Go to p20 of the Council meeting agenda to view the full report on this matter and go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
Related documents can be viewed at the following links on Council’s website:
asset-management-policy-2024.pdf (PDF, 766.9KB)
environmental-strategy.pdf (PDF, 1.8MB)
financial-presentation.pdf (PDF, 584KB)
Long-term Plan 2024-2034 – Significance and Engagement Policy:
Council noted community feedback from consultation on a draft policy and adopted the policy.
Go to p24 of the Council meeting agenda to view the full report on this matter and go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
Related information and documents can be viewed at the following links on Council’s website:
presentation-on-deliberations.pdf (PDF, 291.6KB)
significance-and-engagement-policy-clean-version-16-jan-2024.pdf (PDF, 400.3KB)
significance-and-engagement-policy-submission-catalogue-redacted.pdf (PDF, 2.2MB)
significance-and-engagement-policy-track-changes-16-jan-2024.pdf (PDF, 949KB)
