Are we building harder hotter cities? This rhetorical question is the title of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton’s latest report where he addresses “the vital importance of urban green spaces”. The export examined the state of our urban green space across the country, finding that urban green spaces are dwindling as we intensity our cities in line with population growth.
We know that growth and the rate of housing construction is increasing, and that urban form is changing and becoming more intense. This pattern is supported by legislation such as the NPS-UD and the MDRS. This report considers what changes driven by growth and intensification may mean for the equitable share of urban space (green space) and the environmental services they provide.
While both the NPS-UD and the MDRS identify accessibility to natural spaces and open spaces as a key element of “well-functioning urban environments”, neither provides any guidance, tools or additional funding sources to help councils achieve that. The Commissioner says, “It is telling that the NPS-UD classifies public open space as “additional” infrastructure – something that councils need only be satisfied “is likely to be available”. By contrast, when it comes to “development” infrastructure, namely three waters and transport networks, councils are required to provide sufficient capacity to meet expected demand for housing and for business land over the short term, medium term and long term”.
The report looks at the benefits of green space and considers what the loss of green space might mean for the health and wellbeing of city dwellers. It also considers environmental services (think spongy environments) that green space provides. Upton observes that “If we had forgotten the value of these services, recent extreme weather events have put them right back at the centre of everyone’s attention. In the 18 months it has taken to prepare this report a series of major storm events have left destruction in their wake across New Zealand”. The third matter considered in the report is the amenity or ‘placemaking’ benefits that urban green space provides.
The report delves into evidence that are cities are heating up, particularly with decreasing green spaces and tree canopy cover. This has long been a point of discussion in Ōtautahi / Christchurch, host of our NZPI conference this year. The report states that “the sheer amount of (re)development activity that occurred in Christchurch in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes makes it a good place to study the effect residential construction can have on tree canopy cover. It turns out the percentage of trees removed on redevelopment sites was 44%, around three times that on other sites”.
The report warns that there is no requirement to plan for or provide public green space in New Zealand cities. Unlike other forms of infrastructure, notably roads and three waters networks, parks provision is at the discretion of councils. The report cites evidence that “this lack of guidance tends to mean that parks and reserves are treated as a discretionary ‘nice to have’ when hard decisions about provision levels and funding are made”. The report also addresses concern that Councils do not appear to be using the full extent of the powers that are available to create new public green space. In brownfield areas, reserve contributions fall well short of the 7.5% maximum allowed under the Local Government Act 2002. The report found that much of that could be avoided if councils were more explicit about their expectations regarding parks provision prior to up-zoning rural land.
The removal of the blanket rules for tree protection is another concern, finding that the effectiveness of the system for protecting vegetation on green space held as private land is questionable.
Andrew McCarthy, Senior Advisor, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment; will be discussing the vital importance of urban green spaces on Thursday 20th April at the NZPI Annual Conference in Christchurch, click here for details.
The NZPI Conference is being held 19-21st April 2023 at Te Pae Convention Centre. It’s not too late to register, click here.
