Whanganui's Carson St extension project a 'three-way partnership'

Around 260 metres will be added to the street's northern end, along with stormwater mains, berms, footpaths and parking. Photo / Bevan Conley

Castlecliff's Carson St will soon be extended, the first step in a project to help alleviate Whanganui's housing shortage.

Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said about 260 metres would be added to the street's northern end, along with stormwater mains, berms, footpaths and parking.

Funding of $1.9 million for this core infrastructure came from the Government's Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF).

"Obviously we'll have to go through the process of finalising funding agreements and all of the paperwork before the project moves into its next stage," Langford said.

"We'll iron out the engineering designs and make sure all the consents are in place then we can get contractors on board, boots on the ground and shovels turning."

The project brings together the council and iwi Tupoho, which owns the land around the extension.

Now the funding had been secured, ideas needed to be refined to make sure the project met all its obligations, Tupoho chairman Ken Mair said.

A total of 340 homes are planned but it would take "a number of years" to reach that figure.

"This is about affordable, quality homes with a diversity of people being in them," Mair said.

"It's intergenerational as well, which I think is an important context in regard to taking a community approach - looking after our kaumatua and our tamariki."

Mair said a staged approach would be taken in terms of construction, and he expected Tupoho to build the first 100 to 125 homes.

Ken Mair says it will be a number of years before the 340-home figure is reached. Photo / Bevan Conley

Relationships between the council and iwi continued to strengthen, Langford said.

"They [iwi] are coming to the table, making a serious investment, and 340 houses will have a massive, massive impact.

"The central government funding means this is a three-way partnership between local government, central government and tangata whenua.

"Hopefully this is just one of many cool projects and partnerships we'll see evolve over the coming years."

Nationwide, there were challenges around materials, costs and skilled labour, Mair said.

"From our point of view, we would love to get things moving sooner rather than later.

"We could see clearly that there was a shortage of homes and we could see clearly that rents were going up astronomically. We had to do something in a practical way.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to have some houses already up by this time next year?"

Langford said it was important to find solutions that didn't put a massive burden on ratepayers.

Public and private sectors working hand-in-hand was "the way to go".

"I'm sure there is more we can do.

"For example, our town centre regeneration strategy talks about how the council could be incentivising some of the empty offices to be converted into upper-floor apartments for more residential living."