Next step for government funding for Hukutaia
Ōpōtiki District Council has been successful in the first stage of their bid to attract central government funding to extend housing development in Hukutaia.
In August, Council submitted an application for the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) – part of the $3.8billion funding package from Kāinga Ora that is targeted to help build infrastructure to unlock new areas and increase housing supply.
Late last week, Council was informed that the application had been chosen from projects across the country to move to the next formal stage in the process. From here, council will provide more detailed information, timeframes, specific designs and specific funding requirements.
Ōpōtiki Mayor, Lyn Riesterer, said that it was great news that the application so clearly matched the funding criteria, moving to the top of a list that will fund projects from across New Zealand.
“As I said when we submitted the application, this is such an important part of our long term planning for Ōpōtiki’s growth. We have jobs coming online and new training, businesses and opportunities. We already have a clear housing shortage and we also need somewhere sustainable in the medium and long term to house all the people coming home and moving to the area.
“Hukutaia has long been a preferred option – we have consulted on it over many years and the Kainga Ora funding is a way to encourage development and remove barriers to growth, without weighing heavily on rates for local ratepayers,” Mayor Riesterer said.
The Mayor outlined the next steps to submit a strong RFP before Christmas.
“Our initial application was based on several informal discussions with landowners that came forward through the last LTP and indicated that they were quite keen to get the ball rolling on development in the area. What we need to do now is have some more detailed discussions with anyone else who might be considering subdivision or larger development so we can bring that into a really powerful proposal to put in front of government. That is a lot of work to do before Christmas!
“However, I am sure there will be plenty of questions and people might want to know more about what it means as landowners who want to subdivide or not, what it means for people on septic tanks, what the new areas might look like and even the sort of timeframes we are thinking of.
“I am aware for a lot of people already living up in Hukutaia, there are concerns about whether they will have to come off septic tanks and the costs associated with that. Holding a drop-in session is a chance to explain the process and also reassure people that our application requests additional funding to help people move from septic tanks to sewer mains if they want to.
“We had planned to do so earlier, but covid lockdowns meant we couldn’t meet in person, but we hope to set a new date very soon, pull together a few fliers and displays and perhaps set up at the Golf Course for people to stop in and chat, have a look through what might be possible, talk to councillors or subject matter experts just to get their heads around it,” Mayor Riesterer said.
A date and time will be arranged and advertised widely for the drop in sessions.
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