On your bike

Plan could end car-dependent suburbs

New car-dependent suburbs and greenfield developments increasing Wellington’s urban sprawl may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to proposed changes to a regional planning document.

It will be the first time a regional council has set a binding emissions target and if the Greater Wellington Regional Council approves the document today, it will mean big changes for the region. The biggest change will be the decline of cardependent suburbs. Should the plan go through in its proposed form, ‘‘it is going to be very hard to see these happening’’, said Thomas Nash, the regional council’s climate committee chairperson. Wellington would become a poster child for high-density housing, with more frequent and better quality public transport, 15-minute neighbourhoods (where everything you need is only a 15-minute walk or bike away) and more dedicated space for walking and biking.

The aim is to halve net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Under the new plan, developers wanting to build a 200-house subdivision on the outskirts of the region would have to demonstrate no increase to emissions – whether through the building of the houses or by creating heavy car dependency among its residents – before being granted consents. Transport emissions in the Wellington region amount to 39% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to regional council data.

The changes come as a result of a reworking of the council’s Regional Policy Statement (RPS) – the all-encompassing document setting restrictions and direction for the region’s development and natural assets. When the Government updated its advice to

‘‘We have long been moving to deliver a more compact urban form and that is the most significant thing we can do to encourage more walking, cycling and public transport use.’’ Wellington mayor Andy Foster

councils with both the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (2020) and the National Environmental Standards on Fresh Water (2020), the regional council decided to look at its policy around climate change too, Nash said. Local councils will need to align their district plans with the new RPS.

The emissions target comes alongside a raft of other changes to protect water systems and freshwater ecology.

Some preliminary consulting had been done with other councils in the region, Nash said. ‘‘There is recognition that this is a target that will require a lot of work to meet.’’

Wellington mayor Andy Foster said the plan was ‘‘broadly consistent with the aspirations we have already set’’ – to reduce emissions by 57% by 2030. ‘‘We have long been moving to deliver a more compact urban form and that is the most significant thing we can do to encourage more walking, cycling and public transport use.’’ Greenfield developments (satellite suburbs built on undeveloped land) were likely ‘‘where that will bite most’’, Foster said.

Talk Wellington editor Isabella Cawthorn said more compact, liveable places could not come soon enough.

‘‘A neighbourhood structure and layout that is better on all the important things – for local businesses, for healthier and happier kids and old people, for long-term relationships, for biodiversity, for resilience – also happens to be exactly the structure that is low-emission.’’