CBD view shaft protection could be scrapped to enable more inner city living – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

Rules protecting views of the Boulder Bank from the Church Steps could be scrapped to allow for buildings up to eight-storeys high in the central city.

But, while the protected view shaft may be a thing of the past, the Nelson City Council says it doesn’t really matter – because the view has already been obscured by trees anyway.

The council’s major update to planning rules for the city, Plan Change 29, is currently out for public consultation.

The main focus of the proposal is to make it easier to build houses up rather than out – allowing for six-storey, three-storey and two-storey development in new residential zones without resource consent.

Alongside the plans for the city’s suburbs, the plan change is also looking to encourage more inner-city living, with new rules allowing buildings of up to 24 metres tall – or eight-storeys – in the inner city and inner city fringe areas.

Currently, the maximum height in the city centre is 15m, and 20m in fringe areas.

The height would mean there would be “mid-rise” buildings in the city centre, which would “retain the feel of a human scaled environment”, the plan change said.

The height allowance would allow more purely residential development in city fringe areas, while in the city centre it would allow for…