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From issue: Winter 2003

State Houses and Proud of Them

by Kate Edwards

A little corner of Hamilton has turned into a battleground between the forces of development and the forces of preservation.

Hayes Paddock, Hamilton. Picture: Trefor Ward

Basking on a sunny terrace beside the park-like banks of the Waikato River, a pocket of Hamilton East homes has been a showpiece for 60 years of the care and skill of state housing planners.

Over 225 homes face streets named after the country's British governors, Galway, Fergusson, Jellicoe, Onslow, Plunket and Bledisloe and, like those men, are solid, sensible, durable. Those names are also associated with the highest ideals of preservation and heritage. Lord Plunket gave his name to the society striving for the health of women and children and Lord Bledisloe gave the Treaty House at Waitangi to the nation.

Jellicoe Drive resident Sheila Munro outside a neighbouring house which is up for sale for removal. Photo: Trefor Ward

But this favourite example of 1930s art of the state in providing good housing has become a battlefield where heritage defends its lines against the forces of development. Concern over the future of Hayes Paddock, named after Irishman Patrick Hayes, who once farmed it, has stirred passions to the point where the police were called to Jellicoe Drive last October when residents tried to block a house transporter with their cars. Thirty residents made their protest at a gaping hole opening up in the fabric of the neighbourhood. Three former state homes were removed. A consent for the removal of six more was granted at the time of writing.A subdivision that created five lots from clearances met zone density rules and has resource consent for an apartment block. The zone allows one unit per 400 square metres.

Hayes Paddock residents Matt Watson and Vanda Eliadis with daughter, Isobel. Photo: Trefor Ward

Its 1930s socialist planners wanted Hayes Paddock to be a garden suburb and its single dwellings were built on sections of about 612 to 700 square metres. Here was room for a shed and a vegetable garden and a lawn for children to play on. Different but matching homes - singles, duplexes and two-storey units - were positioned for the sun above curving tree-lined streets and around secluded cul-de-sacs.

Today, only 51 of the homes remain in Housing New Zealand ownership. On private property, garages and a few new buildings have been added and some houses have been altered.

Jellicoe Drive resident and real estate agent Warwick Johnson says he identified Hayes Paddock as an area close to the central city that would redevelop at some time. He has owned his four-bedroomed former state house for 12 years. It now has two levels and was extended to give two living areas.

A Hayes Paddock house on Jellicoe Drive. Photo: Trefor Ward

Other Jellicoe Drive homes, especially those backing onto the river esplanade, he says, have been modified for family life and indoor/outdoor living.

Another resident, Paula Clements, bought her former state house four years ago and added a bedroom, which, she says, is hard to pick from the rest of the house.

"I think state houses are wonderful and Hayes Paddock a particularly pleasant place," she says. "It's just a few streets and the river. It's built like a village. I like areas that hang together like a whole.A lot of people who moved in value the area, too.We have created an amazing community with people who like the look of their '40s state houses."

Clements says more intensive developments will blight its character. She and a group of like-minded residents and the Waikato branch of the Historic Places Trust are trying to press the Hamilton City Council to recognise Hayes Paddock as a special character area.

City planner Kate Mackness says such an area has been established in another part of the city, Claudelands West, where bungalows and villas have development controls.The rules impose standards on site coverage, density, setbacks and minimum lot sizes that are more stringent than those of the residential zone generally.

But Mackness says any rules or policies for a special character zone or heritage precinct need a significant level of support within the affected community. The rules applying to a special character area tend to be more relaxed than those applying to a heritage precinct.

Mackness says a council survey shows some division between those against any intervention and those who would allow evolution through market forces. But almost 85 per cent of respondents believed Hayes Paddock had an identified character.

She says the shape of how the council and the community might intervene needs be explored and discussed with the community. The next stage is the preparation of a report on what controls might be best. That would form the basis for further consultation.

So far, however, the council is unwilling to take the next step. Trust Waikato branch chairman Warwick Kellaway is disappointed that, in February, the council turned down a request by a majority of residents."They had not asked for anything beyond recognition and assistance."

Kellaway says property values can increase considerably, as they have in the city's Frankton Railway Village Heritage Precinct and elsewhere where the heritage value has been recognised and given protection, with guidelines for development.

Clements says the vote went against the council's own survey. This showed 67 per cent of residents thought that leaving it to the market was not an appropriate mechanism to determine future development.A residents' petition taken round 225 homes showed 187 wanted the special character zone.

Clements says nine out of fourteen councillors ignored the opinion they had sought from heritage consultant Dave Pearson, of Auckland.Pearson's report says Hayes Paddock was one of the first Labour Government-planned state housing areas that introduced the concept of a well-planned housing subdivision.

Pearson says modification and removal of houses in Hayes Paddock had a negative impact. But he says the area is largely intact and, therefore, still nationally significant. He recommended protection to at least the same level as the Frankton Railway Village Heritage Precinct and that guidelines be prepared to ensure alterations and additions respect the character and aesthetic quality of the area.

Kellaway agrees with Pearson's assessment and says Hayes Paddock has a special character he has not seen elsewhere. (Palmerston North included its Savage Cres - one of the first experimental state housing estates initiated by the 1935 Labour Government - as a heritage precinct under its proposed district plan.)

The heritage value of Hayes Paddock was also outlined in a 1997 heritage survey by Dinah Holman, of Auckland. Later,Hayes Paddock was included as a heritage protection area, similar to the Frankton Railway Village precinct, in Hamilton City's 1999 draft district plan.

However, the proposal was removed from the plan as a result of a residents' petition. Clements says only 35 residents signed that petition and she believes some of them were influenced by a pamphlet alleging this status would mean restrictions on developing properties and, as a result, hamper property values.

Johnson says he opposed a heritage area because it would have stopped him from carrying out major alterations he planned for his house. He believes self-regulation will win out. "The area is not overdue for renewal because most of the houses are tidy. I think it will be a gradual change because a lot of people here want to keep their houses the way they are. Housing New Zealand still owns a lot of homes and quite a lot of little streets away from the river will stay much same."

Johnson says the cost of land will determine that any redevelopment will be fairly good quality and done in the right manner.

Trust heritage advisor Aranne Donald says that special character recognition and protection does not prevent homeowners from altering their properties. Instead it retains the special character of the area and can have a positive effect on property values.

After the Auckland City Council identified special character areas in the District Plan, the identified suburbs like Ponsonby, St Mary's Bay, Parnell, Herne Bay and Mt Eden increased in value.

"Over time those who had initial reservations were persuaded of the value of the controls because the character of the area has been maintained. Those suburbs are now among the most expensive and sought-after suburbs in Auckland."

Donald says it is disappointing that the Hamilton City Council continues to ignore professional advice and the wishes of the community.

Kate Edwards is an Auckland writer and regular contributor to Heritage New Zealand.