Urban development in the Hutt

Here is an example of a Council Meeting that is associated with the Urban Growth Agenda. In this case the meeting is for the Hutt District.

Note that the meeting is at 1:30, a feature of meetings when the Council does not want a large turnout.

If you look at the agenda for the meeting you will see that areas are being identified as areas for future development. The issue will be the fact that there are areas of native vegetation within the areas being developed. This is the reason for the recent declarations of Significant Natural Areas over many parts of the Wellington Region. Use rights for the land are being taken of private owners to offset the rights being given to housing developers.

Here is the link to the Council agenda:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iYFZ9J7i5Jo5rHMAX_e0wC70oxmqbh3R/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to maps showing the vegetation cover in the areas being proposed for development:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12zTG7nlMhGl18KmOweDOoiZaYAnhDZE4?usp=sharing

For any of you familiar with the SNA proposals for the Hutt, you will see areas that look exactly like areas proposed for the removal of use-rights by SNAs are being proposed for urban development. This illustrates just how unjust the government's Urban Growth Agenda is. One of the types of land likely to be severely affected will be Maori land. Shane Jones and the last government claimed that they were providing funding for Maori landowners to allow for development of Maori land and clearing of scrub. At the same time they were claiming this, the Urban Growth Agenda was being developed. The UGA will tie up a large proportion of the remaining Maori land because of the vegetation cover.

If you want to attend the meeting and give comment you will need to give at least one day's notice. You can speak under public comment to items on the agenda to the Mayor and Councillors at this meeting. Please let us know by noon the working day before the meeting. You can do this by emailing [email protected] or calling the Democratic Services Team on 04 570 6666 | 0800 HUTT CITY