Sage Eugenie: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — Second ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — Second Readings[Sitting date: 01 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11601. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Talofa lava. Malo faafetai Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to take a call on the Riccarton Racecourse Bill and the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill. The Green Party is supporting this legislation because it is going to provide land within the city limits for new housing and because a significant component some 180 homes of the 600 homes that are proposed to be built on the 40 hectares of the Riccarton Racecourse will be for affordable housing so it is not leading to further urban sprawl. We certainly need those extra 180 affordable houses in Christchurch although we question the definition of “affordable” in the legislation which is a sale price of $450000 because that is hardly affordable for a lot of people. We need that affordable housing because the city is predicted to grow by around 80000 people before 2043 and because we have seen such massive loss of affordable housing as a result of the quakes particularly in the east of Christchurch. We have seen a huge increase both in house prices and in rental costs. Now the average house price is around $490000. Certainly a lot of new building consents have been issued and some new houses have been built but those are targeted at the higher end of the market.That is why this Government has failed in tackling our crisis in housing tackling homelessness—the fact that people are regularly sleeping in cars on the streets or in garages. Back in the 1960s and 1970s about 30 percent of the new homes that were being built were affordable homes; now it is around 5 percent. That is why the Government needs to get active and enable Housing New Zealand to build more affordable homes. That is why the Green policy is to ensure that Housing New Zealand can keep its dividend—can keep the tax that it would pay the Government and use that to make a start on building new homes. We are supporting this legislation but it is a very small measure to address the crisis we have in housing in New Zealand. One provision in the legislation is that if these 180 homes that are affordable are not built then the developer in terms of the racecourse trust and Ngāi Tahu have to pay a penalty to the Crown of around $3 million.But we still have some concerns about the way that the development may proceed. There were issues raised by submitters about the loss of open space and green space in this part of Christchurch. There were not many submitters certainly but one of them William Morgan noted that the other subdivision developments in the area at Yaldhurst Village and the Kintyre Estate along with this one at Riccarton Racecourse would result in 1200 new households. His concern was that there was not adequate provision of open space in those other subdivision developments that we have seen the loss of open space at Wigram airbase and that this area is not as the Minister for Building and Housing claimed not well used. It is well used for passive recreation particularly during the week. It is used for running for walking dogs for walking and for just enjoying being amongst the trees and being in that open area.I was really troubled by the Minister’s comments in his introduction which were seeming to suggest that if you had green space that was not being highly used then that should automatically be available for housing development. We will get very unhealthy cities and towns if that is to be the Minister’s attitude through this proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development that we are seeing tomorrow. It fails to appreciate the importance of green open space. We have got rising obesity rates and rising issues with mental health and there is a considerable amount of research that shows that being exposed to nature being able to enjoy open space improves people’s well-being and of course it provides a place for exercise which both improves well-being and improves health outcomes.We want to ensure that the subdivision that happens here is well integrated with existing public transport and that the roads are wide enough to accommodate buses which they have not been in subdivisions like Northwood. We want to ensure that the city council really looks at these issues around integration with existing services around making sure that it is not just pedestrian walkways that are provided through the subdivision and that we have more than the two small reserves that are proposed. Certainly Paparua Stream is going to be enhanced but we need to ensure that there is good open space so that there are good amenity values—not just for the residents in this new subdivision but also for residents in neighbouring areas because the Riccarton Racecourse land has catered to those needs for passive recreation.This whole thrust in the Green Party’s policy for green cities and towns is that we have a subdivision that is not just urban sprawl on the outskirts where there are very high costs for people commuting to work and to city services but that the new development is well integrated and that it has adequate provision for stormwater management. Again Riccarton Racecourse at the moment is a soak for stormwater. That helps replenish the aquifers. If we get a lot of hard surfaces in the area without adequate green space that generates more stormwater which the city council then has to deal with. Green spaces are really important in providing livable cities and towns and the Minister needs to ensure that his National Policy Statement on Urban Development is not going to be just a fast track to converting reserves into housing areas.There is a real risk of that if he uses the truncated process that he has made available in the Resource Management Act where a national policy statement does not have to go out to a board of inquiry. He can appoint a single person to consider submissions and there does not have to be a public hearing. The hearing process as with this legislation even though there are only a few people who made submissions highlighted some issues for the Local Government and Environment Committee which did lead to some changes in the legislation in terms of ensuring how the racecourse trust board can use some of the revenue that is generated and just ensuring that the legislation was a lot clearer in terms of the way that it operated.We support affordable housing. We do not want this to be a precedent for seeing other reserves and green space in urban areas converted to affordable housing because those areas are quite critical to providing for good amenities and sustainable cities and towns and for ensuring that we cater for other values like public recreation and public health and well-being. Thank you.