An apartment developer says recent catastrophic weather events highlight the need to move away from housing plans that benefit businesses over the community.
Mark Todd, the co-founder of Auckland-based Ockham Residential, said examples of this could be seen around Pukekohe in the city's south and in Tauranga. In both areas, what was once farmland is now covered in houses.
Todd said it was a case of the "tail wagging the dog".
"A lot of property development is driven by private sector interest, historical expertise and just land development," Todd said.
"It shouldn't be private land owners or developers driving and pushing for where that development."
Instead, communities should be able to come up with an overall plan as to how they want their urban environments to develop, he said.
Meanwhile, in cities like Auckland, there have been calls from some for a moratorium on further housing intensification over concerns existing infrastructure wouldn't be able to cope.
Todd said comments like that show things have been conflated.
He argued that people shouldn't stop building more houses - in denser forms like apartments - because infrastructure should be catching up.
Instead, what's actually needed is increased investment in infrastructure, he said.
Todd said this generation had lost the collective approach of its great-grandparents, where there was a greater sense of civic responsibility to contribute to the common good. He said the country had taken a more laissez-faire approach to infrastructure development since the 1980s.
There was also a lack of a funding mechanism that saw the central government specifically reward councils for growth, he added.
Todd was critical of Labour and National's medium-density rules because he believed it forced intensification to be permitted in places where there was inadequate infrastructure.
But, he praised the Government's Three Waters reforms and its National Policy Statement on Urban Development, which encourages housing intensification along the likes of city centres and rapid transport stops.
"There's some issues around [Three Waters policy], but it's great policy that will address underinvestment - over two or three generations - of pipes."
SHARE ME