Until 1962 the council had no committee for housing but Porter successfully argued for the creation of one and for the council to be involved with the development of housing lots for both sale and rent complimented with pensioner flats. Development began on better zoning and planning with many areas of the city combining land usage unhealthily, epitomised by the suburb of Te Aro which in the late 1950s was still a mix of factories, small business retailers amongst hundreds of slum-like houses. Porter put forth the view that Wellington should formalise its approach to planning by putting in place standards that would avoid any further ad-hoc development. He worked with central government to secure funding to densify housing, replacing several hundred inner-city houses with larger apartment blocks which created more than 2,000 extra housing units in the city.
