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Wellington City councillor Rebecca Matthews has criticised a council staff member for suggesting the city could take a leaf out of San Francisco’s book to address its housing crisis. (File photo) “San Francisco is completely unaffordable for essential workers, and renters are in similar dire circumstances to here,” Matthews posted on Twitter. “Not my model for Wellington.” Matthews told
Stuff that both council staff and councillors needed to be “really careful” when commenting publicly about controversial housing proposals put forward for the city. Those proposals involve creating about 12,000 extra homes over the next 30 years, and removing demolition protection for many pre-1930s buildings.
For those, however, the city appears to have the right person to set about finding them. Hodgetts has worked on big, complex projects, including London’s Channel Tunnel rail link, where the then young Kiwi helped plan tunnelling under East London, and the liaison with a nervous community. During 14 years in Melbourne he was at the heart of efforts to fix its housing crisis. “Housing affordability was a real pressing issue,” he said. “It was similar to the situation here, with concerns about affordability, about the income of families and ability to service debt.” And in his previous role, as head of strategy at New Plymouth District Council, Hodgetts brought together disparate public, private and iwi groups to create a regional economic strategy.
All have been drawn into a building drama over the future of Wellington city and region, and the conflicting aspirations of those living in it. Iain Macleod remembers the games of cricket he played as a child in his generous backyard, the matches that would end with the ball hoisted over the neighbour’s fence, and the sense of community that grew in every victory and defeat. He wanted the same for his own children. That’s why he bought a large home on a quarter-acre section in Seatoun. A suburb of large homes on even larger sections.
ROSA WOODS