Council adopted the Land Use Strategy Upper Hutt 2016 – 2043 (PDF, 3MB) in September 2016. The strategy will help inform the decisions we make today in order to build a city that is enjoyable and prosperous for our residents for generations to come.
There is no better place to live, play, and grow than Upper Hutt. It has always been a great place to raise a family. We want to continue to nurture our deep sense of community and treasure our beautiful environment, while embracing technology, accepting diversity and encouraging innovation and growth.
We all know it’s hard to predict what our future will look like. There are always elements of chance and choice, and events occur that no one can predict. For the most part we live with this. However, it is important to try and make plans for Upper Hutt’s future, so that we keep moving towards city-wide well-being and make sure we look after those generations to come.
We have structured the Land Use Strategy to align with the Long Term Plan (LTP), and we have focused on how future plans for the city weave through the LTP priority areas of environment, community, city centre, economy and infrastructure.
The Land Use Strategy envisages the wants and needs of residents living in Upper Hutt in 30 years’ time and how Council plans to respond to that. Obviously our predictions won’t be exact, but we can attempt to plan based on past trends and merge these with our aspirational goals.
Over the next 30 years we want capitalise on what we already do well, and continue to support Upper Hutt’s development into a connected, prosperous city surrounded by a healthy environment. We also want to cultivate Upper Hutt’s reputation as a fantastic scenic playground, a centre for opportunity, offering diversity in housing choice and having happy residents in our communities.
The reality is that continuing to plan for and accommodate development in the same way we have in the past may not achieve the best future for the City. Now is the time to address that, to ask some hard questions and to challenge the way we do things, if that’s going to achieve better outcomes for future generations. Upper Hutt needs to move from being a young city to one that grows in a sensible and sustainable way.
We are not planning for high-level population growth, nor are we proposing to put in place measures to try and encourage this. Our plan is to be realistic about growth, and plan for expected increases based on past trends. We expect that the city will have between 5100 and 8100 more residents by 2043, so that’s what the Strategy is based on.
This Strategy also brings together planning for the urban area and the rural area, because the two interact and shouldn’t be considered separately. We have also considered Upper Hutt’s place in the region, and thought about what our role will be in this context in the future.
This document provides the logic and background information for the choices being made for the future so that we can achieve the sort of future we want.
In preparing this Strategy we have asked for input from communities in both the rural and urban areas. We have also talked to government organisations, community groups and the organisations the Council has partnerships with, and the Strategy has been written taking into account the required national and regional strategy direction.
For further information contact the Planning team on (04) 527 2169.
During 2013 and 2014, Council commenced work on developing a Rural Strategy . Consultation included surveys and workshops, and several key documents were produced:
At the same time, work started to review the Urban Growth Strategy(PDF, 9MB) that was adopted in 2007.
As this review progressed, it became clear that many issues were similar for both the urban and rural environments, so it was decided to bring together planning for both areas into one integrated, comprehensive document. This document is the Land Use Strategy Upper Hutt 2016 – 2043.
- The Summary consultation document: Draft Land Use Strategy 2016 – 2043 document [PDF 7.5 MB]
Extraordinary Council Meeting of Council 13, 15 and 20 June to hear submitters:
- Extraordinary Council Meeting 13, 15 and 20 June - Agenda
- Extraordinary Council Meeting 13, 15 and 20 June - Minutes
Extraordinary Council Meeting August 17 to consider the content of submissions and any consequential amendments required to the Land Use Strategy:
- Extraordinary Council Meeting August 17 - Agenda
- Extraordinary Council Meeting August 17 - Minutes