Under the current district plan Wellington has seven ‘character areas’ designated due to their cultural and historical significance: Mt Victoria, Thorndon, Aro Valley, The Terrace, Mt Cook, Newtown and Berhampore.

These suburbs have been built up over more than a hundred years and are the oldest parts of Wellington. Over the course of their history they have housed generations of Wellingtonians and have important stories to tell about our collective past and city’s identity.

In the WCC’s own words the heritage suburbs are “recognised and celebrated for the important contribution they make to defining the city’s character along with the striking visual backdrop they provide to the central city.” (Draft Spatial Plan, 2020).

The history of each suburb is rich and diverse.

Thorndon, established in 1839, was the site of a substantial kainga, Pipitea Pa, which was a centre of local Maori life. At various points it has been home to large numbers of rail and waterfront workers as well as politicians, writers and artists including Katherine Mansfield and Rita Angus. Today it is Aotearoa’s oldest suburb and has one of the best collections of Victorian and Edwardian houses in Wellington.

Holloway Road started as a farming community in the mid 1800s and was sub-dived in 1890 and named Mitchelltown. Since then it has had among its residents “a Black Power house, a brothel, politicians of all hues and some off-beat and talented artists and photographers.” (Joseph Romanos, Stuff, 2012). Today it is known as a collection of well intact historic worker’s cottages and early shops. Still standing is an impressive monument to the men of Mitchelltown who died in WWI.

Nearby, Aro Valley has the largest collection of unaltered working class homes in Wellington.

Nestled against the slopes of Matairangi, is the sunny, densely packed suburb of Mt Victoria. Mt Victoria is another example of a Victorian/ Edwardian suburb with some interesting examples of art deco apartments found throughout. Over 80% of buildings were constructed before 1920 and it is significant because it is very well intact, with many original houses and dwellings. Today it is home to many young people and students, as well as professionals and older people.

Due to the heritage suburbs’ widely acknowledged importance they have special protections.

Development must be done in a sensitive way that is in keeping with the suburb’s established streetscape and a resource consent must be granted in order to demolish a pre-1930s building.

Just like you wouldn’t expect a towering glass multi-storey to pop up along the Champs-Élysées in Paris or canal-side next to an 18th century Dutch Renaissance style house in Amsterdam, these protections help define what development is appropriate where.

These protections – which have secured Wellington’s heritage – do not mean that no new development can be undertaken. It just must go through a process of approval.

In Mayor Andy Foster’s own words, taken from his blog: “We did this to protect the character of these suburbs which have a very high level of coherent character, with in excess of 90% of buildings dating from pre 1930s. The rules do not prevent demolition but do mean that consent is required and Council can consider not just the value of the existing building but how whatever is proposed in its place would fit in.”

The government requires cities like Wellington to analyse its likely population growth over the next 30 years and make space for housing developments. Accordingly, the WCC released on 10 August a draft spatial plan – a ‘blueprint’ of how Wellington should grow and develop.

The draft spatial plan proposes massive building deregulation that threatens the unique quality of heritage suburbs. (See map of intensification in inner/heritage suburbs).

In the plan only 30% of the heritage suburbs will retain protections such as the requirement to get a resource consent before demolishing pre-1930s buildings. These reduced areas are being referred to as “character sub areas”. The remaining areas within the suburbs will either have no protection or some form or design guidelines. (See map of proposed new character sub-areas).

The WCC’s position is that the “character sub areas” represent the best parts of the heritage suburbs. These areas were chosen based on their street appeal – i.e. being well maintained and attractive – points that have nothing to do with the preservation of meaningful and genuine heritage. (See draft WCC summary of draft spatial plan).

This privileging of wealthy, gentrified history represents the ultimate in Disneyfication of cultural heritage.

The original report prepared by WCC’s own consultants Boffa Miskell in January 2019, concluded that 70-80% of the buildings in the heritage suburbs were positive or contributing to intact character.

Despite this advice, WCC have decided to shrink the character areas to 20-30% of their original size.

All areas outside the “character sub areas” will have increased height limits – especially in Mt Victoria, Mt Cook, Newtown and Berhampore. In the later three suburbs large areas will have new height limits of at least six storeys.

In addition, buildings will have maximum site coverage and it is unclear to what extent they will have recession planes for sun and views, if any.

Large areas of modern tall buildings risk destroying the neighbourhoods in the heritage suburbs.

The draft spatial plan is based on projected growth numbers from Statistics New Zealand. Stats proposed three scenarios for growth in Wellington.

Low growth of about 20,000 people, medium growth of 46,766 people and high growth of 74,484 people. WCC have chosen to develop the spatial plan around the highest projected figure of 80,000.

The rate of growth in Wellington city has ebbed and flowed over the last 20 years. The high growth rate in Wellington between 2014-2017, in expert opinion, is likely to have been a temporary phenomenon related to high levels of immigration.

In a post-Covid world, 80,000 new Wellingtonians is not the most likely scenario. The central government requires council’s to use to most likely scenario, which WCC is not doing.

The NPS-UD was released by central government and entered into force in August 2020. (See NPS-UD)

The NPS-UD is a legal directive to cities under the Resource Management Act (RMA) to enable greater supply of land for housing development and ensure that planning is responsive to changes in housing demand.

It is one of the Labour-led government’s initiatives to meet affordable housing needs.

The NPS-UD requires WCC to remove overly restrictive rules that affect urban development outcomes and requires buildings of at least 6 stories within a walkable catchment of the city centre, or planned/existing rapid transit stations.

The NPS-UD recognises that heritage sites and areas are matters of national importance under the RMA. As such, NPS-UD allows for heritage sites and areas to be exempt from the intensification otherwise required. (See policy 3.32 in the NPS-UD).

This important caveat provides WCC with the legal basis on which to exempt heritage suburbs from intensification that risks their integrity.

Despite this, WCC is proposing wide-spread reductions to heritage suburb protections in Wellington.

Most media focus has been on the NPS-UD removal of minimum car-parking requirements in city centres.

Little media attention has focused on the scale of intensification and impact on heritage suburbs in Wellington.

Keep Wellington’s Character fully supports initiatives to increase affordable housing and to ensure healthy home standards.

However as recognised by the NPS-UD that should not come at the expense of nationally important cultural heritage and identity.