City takes firm line on shoddy developers

Ugly buildings will be outlawed in Auckland City from July 1 and developers who do not like the decision will face the full might of the council in court, says Mayor Dick Hubbard.

"Today we put a stake in the ground and say 'enough is enough' of the appalling developments we have seen go up around the city," Mr Hubbard said yesterday at the release of the mayoral taskforce on urban design report.

Mr Hubbard set up the taskforce in March to halt ugly developments and environmental damage caused by years of weak planning rules and lax building controls.

"Melbourne and Copenhagen turned their cities around within 10 years. If they can do it, so can we," the mayor said.

Changes needed to be made to the council's three district plans to include urban design criteria as part of the resource consent process, but the council was immediately implementing a "just say no" approach to bad design.

Developers could appeal a decision to the courts, but would face a strong council response, he said.

Developer Patrick Fontein, who sat on the taskforce and is a member of the Property Council representing 800 developers and property investors, said: "The reality is no developer is going to challenge the council."

Most developers wanted to build better buildings. The "ratbags" who had exploited the weaknesses in the district plan until now would have to quickly respond to the new rules or have their plans rejected, he said.

Institute of Architects president and taskforce member Gordon Moller said that in the two years since the council set up the urban design panel to vet buildings, 15 per cent of the 250 applications had been outstanding, 15 per cent were rubbish "that should never have been designed" and the rest were a varying degree of mediocrity.

"The thrust of this initiative is to change that demographic and really make a lot more outstandingly good," said Mr Moller, who also sits on the urban design panel.

Mr Moller, who designed Auckland's Sky Tower, singled out some developments at the Viaduct Harbour and the Chancery shopping precinct as examples of good design.

Mr Hubbard and Mr Moller said it would take 18 months to two years to see the result of the recommendations of the taskforce.

A number of measures would be started immediately, such as plans to score every new building on its urban design merits, with a three-tier system to reject mediocre proposals, process acceptable ones in the normal manner and fast-track those which are high quality.

The details of the scoring system have still to be worked out and it is unclear whether scores will be made public.

But Mr Fontein said one of the big tests would be how a building proposal interacted between the private needs of the occupants and the public at street level. The days of blank walls or parking floors at the street level of new buildings would be gone in favour of pedestrian-friendly measures such as shops and landscaping.

Other measures to take effect this year include the appointment of a "city architect" to bring about a culture change in the council planning department and an "urban design champion", possibly a joint appointment between the council and the University of Auckland.

A series of forums are planned in the Auckland Town Hall for design professionals and the public to debate the issues.

Graeme Scott, chairman of the Institute of Architect's urban issues group, said the report was an excellent start towards a better city.

Changes in the wind

* Scoring system set up to vet buildings.

* Mediocre plans thrown out, acceptable plans go through in normal way, quality plans fast-tracked.

* District plans overhauled to include urban design criteria.

* Urban design champion and city architect appointed.

* Culture change for Auckland City Council planning department.

* Lobby Government for changes to Building Act and codes on issues such as minimum apartment sizes.

* Series of forums in the Auckland Town Hall to debate urban design issues.

* Mayoral awards for good urban design.

Lobby group: We're happy, mostly

Urban Auckland congratulates Mayor Dick Hubbard and his task- force on urban design, writes Nigel Cook, of the lobby group Urban Auckland. This is much better, albeit with some reservations.

* Who will the city get to fill these two city dictatorships? They are both dynamic jobs. We don't need tired old academics or ex-chairmen or retired architects looking for a soft berth.

* Who will define "ugly architecture" or "bad urban design"? This is a minefield.

* Imagine the explosions when a developer, sure that his proposal should be rated in the fast-tracked category, is scored in the middle range.

* Most important is the matter of transparency. Auckland City Council is well known for its secrecy. If it can, it hides processes until it is too late for knowledgeable professionals like ourselves to take action. We believe there should be a set period - say, six months - for testing these ideas.

* At last a culture may develop among council officers that knows how to "look after" the city from the big picture down to the tiniest details, and doesn't just treat the city as a place for developers to make profits and for people to park cars.