NPS-UDC: Urban development capacity indicators released

Price efficiency indicators and three new sections of guidance to help councils meet the requirements of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity (NPS-UDC) were published this week by the Ministry for the Environment.

The price efficiency indicators are designed to provide information about the responsiveness of land and development markets to demand, the impact of land-use regulation on these markets, and when additional development capacity might be needed.

Guidance on how to interpret and respond to the indicators has also been developed. The other new guidance material supports high-growth councils to set minimum development capacity targets for housing, and to produce a 30-year future development strategy that sets out how sufficient capacity will be provided.

Councils, especially those with jurisdiction over high growth urban areas, are now working towards delivering the policy’s requirements. The next requirement is for local authorities that oversee Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Christchurch and Queenstown to complete a Housing and business development capacity assessment by 31 December 2017.

The assessment should describe the sufficiency of development capacity in the short, medium and long terms and estimate any additional capacity that councils may need to enable in their district plans and infrastructure. Information from the market and price efficiency indicators should be reflected in this assessment.

More information can be found here: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/udc.