On 4 September 2026, Property Council submitted to the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (“MCERT”) on the Report of Investigations into Restrictive Residential Provisions (“The Report”) in the Hamilton City Operative District Plan (“ODP”).
Why this matters to our members
Our members that operate in Hamilton agree that a number of the provisions investigated in the ODP are unnecessarily prescriptive and have the potential to increase development costs, reduce design flexibility and constrain development capacity.
Our view
Our members support good urban design, environmental outcomes and future-proofed infrastructure but this does not necessarily require prescriptive one size fits all requirements.
At a high level, we recommend the following:
- Removing the prescriptive deep soil and urban tree canopy standards as proposed in Appendix C of the report;
- Removing the fixed modulation rule, as drafted in Appendix C of the Report;
- That no EV charging requirements are prescribed, allowing the market to allocate EV charging capacity as required;
- That the existing defined term “Residential activities” is used consistently across Rules 25.14.4.2(t)–(x);
- Removing the cycle and micro-mobility requirements, as drafted in Appendix C of the Report; and
- Retirement villages are included within the proposed modifications to Table 15-1a and therefore are not required to provide resident cycle parking spaces.