In a new type of medium-density development for fast-growing Richmond, near Nelson, 24 two-bedroom townhouses are proposed for a large vacant site along Salisbury Rd.

One house with a separate garage and sleepout used to occupy the land.

Experienced developer Bryan Turner and his team are behind Tasman Holdings Nelson Ltd, which proposes constructing four blocks of six two-storey homes on the site of more than 4000 square metres at 83 Salisbury Rd, adjacent to the Salisbury School grounds and opposite Waimea College.

Turner declined to comment at this early stage. Resource consent applications for the proposed 24-lot development have been lodged with Tasman District Council and await processing.

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Information in the application reveals that one parking space for each home is proposed, to be grouped together in a car park at the front of the property behind a garden adjacent to Salisbury Rd. Two spaces are also earmarked for emergency/service vehicles.

While no garages are provided, each unit is to have a specialised bike storage shed with an E-bike charging point that can store up to three adult bikes. Eight bike parks are also proposed for visitors.

The application says the development proposal was a “purposeful design choice to cater to the growing number of single-person households, couples and small families who require affordable two-bedroom housing”.

Those proposed homes range in size from 81.92 square metres to 86.82 square metres. The ground floor of each unit includes an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room. On the first floor are two double bedrooms and a bathroom.

“The unit size ultimately enables people to live in [a] healthy, affordable new home in central Richmond, walking distance to all amenities,” the application says.

The vehicle access way into and out of Salisbury Rd is to be 6m wide, allowing for two cars to pass safely. A footpath between Salisbury Rd and the units has been designed to enable pedestrians to enter and exit the development without having to cross the car park. That path continues through the middle of the units to a planned communal landscaped area at the rear.

Proposed individual lot sizes range from 100 square metres to 105 square metres for which 24 freehold titles are to be issued.

The site is in the residential zone, on the boundary of the Richmond Intensive Development Area (RIDA) – an area of central Richmond where housing intensification is encouraged via its own set of rules.

While acknowledging the site is outside the intensive development area, application of those rules “will ensure the efficient use of limited central Richmond land while providing high amenity for residents” the consent application document says.

“The size and location of the site make it ideal for a medium-density housing development.”

In requesting consideration be given for limited notification, the application document says the applicant believes that “no parties are affected to a minor or more-than-minor degree”.

Tasman District Council Richmond Ward councillor Kit Maling, who stressed he had not seen the application for the site, said it was his view generally that greater intensification of housing on brownfield sites in Richmond was better than to just “keep going south”. Maling was referring to a proposal for the potential greenfield development of the Richmond South area, which could pave the way for up to 2000 new homes.

“We have to do both,” Maling said of greenfield and brownfield development.

High-quality inner Richmond development proposals that transformed a site that used to have one dwelling into 24 allotments was “the sort of thing the Government is encouraging”, he said.