Whenever we talk to people who live, work and play in the Waimea Plains area of the Tasman region, we hear one message repeatedly:

The population in the Nelson-Richmond urban area has been growing steadily, and is expected to keep growing for many years.

A lot of work has been done in the Tasman and Nelson districts to understand and plan for future growth, and this project, called 'Richmond on the Rise!' focusses on planning for growth within Richmond. The plan will start to be implemented next year (2024) and will cover the next thirty years.

There are only two options to handle future growth in Richmond – expand outwards or increase density within the existing urban area. Realistically we need to do both - make better use of the urban areas we already have, and then extend urban areas where appropriate.

There is a limit to the amount of expansion of the Richmond area that is sustainable without negatively affecting both residents and the environment.

We need to plan to increase the number of people that can live in some areas of Richmond and provide more variety in the housing that is available and then look at a few new developments, in the right places, at the edges of Richmond’s urban areas.

If we don’t plan well now, the consequences are loss of productive land, increasing negative climate change effects, increasing cost of infrastructure and rates, and a lack of housing choices.

The result would be that Richmond would become a less and less attractive place to live.

The easy-to-remember name for the Richmond Spatial Intensification Plan.

It builds on the high-level direction provided through the Nelson Tasman Future Development Strategy.

This plan combines everything we need to think about if we want Richmond to be a nicer place to live in the future, including:

• Making Richmond town centre a more vibrant and attractive place to be.
• Options for growing commercial areas, including mixed use commercial, office and residential buildings in the Richmond centre.
• Increase the number of people that can live in Richmond and make more housing choices available to them, including more one- or two-bedroom homes, potentially in apartments, townhouses and terrace houses.
• Upgrade and create community and neighbourhood facilities and centres that meet some needs, without having to travel into the town centre.
• Improving and creating more green open spaces.
• Upgrading transport options.
• Ensuring infrastructure can cope with more residents and the impacts of climate change.

You can get more detail on what we are proposing for All of Richmond here:

And you can get more detail on what we are proposing for the Richmond Town Centre here:

Thanks to all those who shared their feedback in 2023.

The area that is included in the planning of Richmond On The Rise is shown below.