Dialogue: Short-term gain, long-term pain

By SANDY BURGHAM

We live in what could be called a nice suburb. In fact, it seems the council are hellbent on not only maintaining its niceness but also making it even nicer. A new roundabout here, another judder bar there, footpath widening, lines on roads repainted - it seems they really care about us.

Often as we walk around the suburb and see another handy park bench being installed or a graffiti guard van in action we wonder if other suburbs are receiving the same amount of extraordinary attention. By the look of things, possibly not.

While we cheekily call our suburb "two square miles surrounded by reality" our cynicism may soon have no grounds. The biggest irony in our suburb is that while the council is at pains to make it one of the worlds of Disney, maybe Suburban Fantasy Land, it is in reality contributing to a vicious circle which may well one day implode.

You see one reason we get so many judder bars and helpful traffic islands is to cope with the increased traffic flow through the area, which itself stems from what seems to be a welcoming attitude from the council toward cross-leasing and in-fill housing.

It's bad enough that architectural classics from previous decades are allowed to be modernised and bastardised to make way for indoor-outdoor flow but unforgivable that the breathing space around these homes has been cut off to squeeze in more homes.

We have a situation brewing nearby where a 3500 sq m gully of pohutukawa and other beautiful trees is being bowled to make way for a new six-unit development.

While council permission has been given to the developers who have been careful to comply with council rules, no consideration has been given to whether this is the most appropriate thing to do for the neighbourhood at large.

It's not so much about the inconvenience to the neighbours with views cut off and increased traffic, but more that environmentally it doesn't honour the overall code of this Suburban Fantasy Land.

While a committed bunch of residents have forced this issue to go to notification, thus allowing their viewpoint to be heard, it's a hard argument to present as it's not about rules and regulations but about what we value in our lifestyle, our environment and our living conditions.

It now seems commonplace to hear that all the residents in an area are against a development but feel powerless to stop the personality transplant of their neighbourhood.

In the street we used to live in, the oldest house in the road (in which our elderly neighbour had lived much of his life) was bowled in favour of a multi-dwelling high-rise, much to the horror of the neighbours who lovingly kept and restored their historic villas and bungalows.

In such situations the council seems to ignore that part of the value of our property is derived from the features of surrounding properties. Indeed, property developers often seem motivated to break any neighbourhood code in pursuit of profit and one wonders where the council sits in all of this.

One reason brain-drainers may eventually return to New Zealand is the classic pitch that it's a great place to bring up kids.

Indeed, this was once the quarter-acre paradise of middle NZ where kids told to play outside could. Today there is not much outside to play in, thanks to mum and dad slicing off the back section to allow a prefabricated townhouse to be built, paying off a mortgage and funding a retirement lifestyle. The kids must play in a landscape architecturally designed, ready-lawned, play-cum-barbecue/patio area where they ride their bikes in one tight circle like rats in a cage. I am not talking lower-socio New Zealand here. It seems the higher you go the more hell-bent people are in shoe-horning their way into Suburban Fantasy Land.

Another reason brain-drainers eventually return home is because they need space.

While in London, I lived in many a shoebox-like flat with either no outdoor access or a standing-room-only mock balcony. I attended countless barbecues at basement level flats where neighbouring buildings towered over the small patch of grass blocking what little sunlight, view, privacy and fresh air the minuscule garden received.

I hope that the council starts taking a more comprehensive view regarding cross-leasing greed and in-fill housing, appreciating what might be good for a few in the short-term may be devastating for all in the long-term.