Building boom continues

A proposal to fell a protected black walnut tree in Le Quesnoy Place, Cambridge has been received by the council.

Infrastructure growth in the Waipā district is expected to continue throughout this year given the large surge of applications, pre-application meetings and enquiries council staff fielded before Christmas.

In his quarterly report to the Strategic Planning and Policy committee this week, Growth and Regulatory Services group manager Wayne Allan said the council suspended pre-application meetings at the end of last year to allow staff to prioritise processing consents already in progress.

Mike Pettit

District Plan and Growth manager Tony Quickfall told the committee there was “sustained interest” with numbers so high, the council had to outsource 30-40 per cent of the work to consultants.

“We use consultants to take the peak load. Covid has not had much of an impact (on the work),” he said.

A total of 531 building consents valued at $168.33 million submitted to council in the quarter from October to December, up by 64 in the same period in 2020.

There were 486 building consents issued in the quarter with 152 of them being new dwellings: 75 in Te Awamutu and Kihikihi, 26 in Cambridge and Leamington and 51 in the rest of the district.

Councillor Mike Pettit noted Te Awamutu was outstripping Cambridge which showed the impact of the delay with the 3Ms development in Hamilton Road, he said.

The significant building consents among them were:

  • 1907 Cambridge Road Cambridge, New commercial building and associated carpark. (Gym)
  • 16 Hanlin Road Cambridge, Erect New Single Storey Food Technology Block for (St Peters School).
  • 280 Peake Road Tamahere, New office/ warehouse building. Mixture of concrete structures; timber framing and steel structures.
  • 2/105 Hautapu Road Tamahere, New office and warehouse building. Mixture of concrete structures; timber framing and steel structures.
  • 451 Alexandra Street Te Awamutu, Reinstate the decommissioned service station on the corner of Alexandra St & Rewi St, Te Awamutu into an unmanned fuel stop.
  • 6 Vogel Street Cambridge, Construction of new independent living apartment building, fit-out of level 1 of existing Courtyard Wing and construction of new single level shop. (Cambridge Resthaven).

Nine apartments and commercial units are proposed for this site in Bath Street, Cambridge.

Several major resource consent applications are also in process and include:

  • 401 Racecourse Road, Te Awamutu – Construct and operate plant to generate power through combustion of refuse derived fuel.
  • Waikoha Road, RD 5, Hamilton – Retrospective clearance of vegetation from Significant Natural Area and proposed planting of exotic trees.
  • Habitat for Humanity, 387 Roche Street, Te Awamutu – Habitat for Humanity is seeking land-use consent to establish a compact housing development for elderly residents, comprising seven two-storey blocks (accommodating 46 one-bedroom units) in an identified Compact Housing Area.
  • 18 Le Quesnoy Place, Cambridge – Remove protected Black Walnut tree.
  • 1 Bath Street, Cambridge – Construct nine residential apartments and commercial tenancies.
  • 1881 Cambridge Road, Cambridge – To construct, operate, and maintain a comprehensive care retirement village in C2 Structure Plan area.
  • 1248 Cambridge Road, Te Awamutu – 77 lot subdivision in the Residential Zone.

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