KEY POINTS:
Auckland City councillor Christine Caughey has done an astounding flip-flop on the proposed signs and billboard bylaws that she helped to draw up.
She and her fellow Action Hobson councillor, Richard Simpson, have jumped into bed with the outdoor advertisers and announced "a compromise agreement" which "will improve enforcement of the rules that govern the outdoor advertising industry [and] protect heritage sites, quality architecture and good urban design ... "
Ms Caughey should wander down Queen St and check the ruins of the Jean Batten State Building, another such compromise deal to protect our heritage.
The skeletal remains of the building are like a snapshot from our new "sister-city" Hamburg after the 1943 Allied bombing raids. From that she might appreciate that lying down with property developers and their ilk is as risky as sleeping with elephants.
Nine months ago, Mayor Dick Hubbard was expressing his "delight" that the city council, Bank of New Zealand and NZ Historic Places Trust had reached "an agreement to preserve the Jean Batten building".
He said "the solution does a tremendous job in keeping the urban design character of this building intact so that it remains a significant feature of the cityscape. This is a reminder that there is always middle ground and that two parties can agree to an outcome even when they have come from starting points that appear poles apart."
That was echoed in submissions to the resource consent hearing by BNZ director Bruce Stockwell who declared: "Auckland has lost a number of heritage buildings over the years - the Jean Batten building will not be one of them. We are proud of the outcome. It is better than we thought possible. It balances the interests of all ... "
To borrow from a famous billboard series: "Yeah right."
Now Ms Caughey and Mr Simpson and their advertising mates want the bylaw proposals withdrawn. In their place they're proposing a commission to investigate complaints about illegal signage and act within seven days. All heart, the outdoor advertising association has agreed "to begin work on identifying 50 redevelopment sites with a view to removing billboards within 18 months or less". The expression "redevelopment sites" is, I'm presuming, a euphemism for illegal signs.
One reason for the new bylaw is that for years the industry - or parts of it - have flouted the existing weak regulations. And so have the shop-keepers, who are now wailing about imminent ruin if the new rules comes in.
A glimpse into the existing lawless jungle appears in last year's July-September quarterly operational report by council enforcement staff. In the Queen St valley alone, there were 512 signs bylaw breaches by 231 businesses. There were a further 127 breaches of the sandwich board ban. A plan to survey wider for breaches was "defeated" by the large number of breaches and the complexity of the signage rules.
"Up to a dozen rules may apply to any one sign depending on the bylaw, district plan, plan overlay or guideline (or combination of those) that applied when the sign was established." On Dominion Rd, 445 bylaw breaches were uncovered. Staff complain that the district court will not issue warrants to remove illegal signs painted on shop walls because they cannot be "seized". Painting the sign out is tricky because it involves officers entering private property.
In addition, 39 "illegal" billboards were being processed. But all sorts of legal objections were being used by the accused to delay the outcomes - at great cost in time and cash to ratepayers.
In light of this, I'm surprised that the two first-term councillors have fallen for the industry crocodile tears and think that compromise might be the answer.
Signage in central Auckland is out of control, with the signmakers and the shopkeepers openly defying existing rules. What's needed is what's being proposed. Simple new rules and simple methods of enforcement. The Caughey-Simpson compromise, signing up the industry to act as sheriff to clean up the industry, is too little, too late.
Ms Caughey claims her compromise will "protect heritage sites" and turn the signs jungle into a paradise of self-regulating kittens. She should gaze up at the Jean Batten ruins and think again.
