Auckland Council's 2016 Unitary Plan created capacity for more than 900,000 homes in existing residential areas over 30 years. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
Auckland Council's 2016 Unitary Plan created capacity for more than 900,000 homes in existing residential areas over 30 years. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
Opinion
OPINION:
Christchurch Council has had the courage and common sense to reject the Government's carte blanche intensification legislation, the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD).
This would have rezoned huge amounts of residential land for six-storey-plus apartments with the potential to destroy the city's history, heritage and character. Christchurchvoted not to introduce the standards even after being threatened by central government - either you pass it or a commissioner will be appointed to do it instead.
Wellington Council saved large areas of character housing by reducing the walkable catchment from the city centre zone from 1200m to 800m and 400 to 200m in other catchments.
Auckland Council responded to central government's NPD-UD with Plan Change 78. It has largely rolled over in the face of government threats.
This is despite councillors and council planners believing the very provisions they passed are not in Auckland's best interest. Chris Darby, chair of Auckland Council's Planning Committee, said intensification legislation was "draconian and cooked up in a vacuum in Wellington without proper input from major councils such as Auckland".
Auckland voters have an opportunity in the current local body elections to elect a mayor and councillors who will stand up to central government threats of bullying as Christchurch and Wellington have done.
I haven't met anyone who isn't for intensification, especially the creation of affordable housing. Auckland Council planners believe they had addressed this issue in the 2016 Unitary Plan which created capacity for more than 900,000 homes in existing residential areas over 30 years.
Council experts say the recently approved Plan Change 78 will provide an extra 2,389,000 dwellings.
Unfortunately, anti-intensification plans from 1970 to 2014 led to a lack of development sites. However, we now have 3,289,000 sites earmarked for the future. Given there are currently only 540,000 dwellings in Auckland, it's blindingly obvious the pendulum has swung wildly out of control in the other direction.
Infrastructure, and building construction capacity are now the major constraints on housing supply in Auckland. The objective of the NPS-UD is to "remove overly restrictive barriers to the development of growth in locations that have good access to existing services such as infrastructure".
By zoning so many areas for intensive housing Auckland Council has set Watercare the impossible task of supplying wastewater infrastructure to all of these areas. To start with, we simply need to get the pipes to areas in the greatest need.
Auckland is crying out for affordable housing to alleviate growing social problems. We have families forced to live in cars, sleep rough and live in overcrowded motels.
Good town planning would concentrate Auckland infrastructure spending in areas where land prices are affordable. Eden Terrace, for example, is beside Mt Eden train station, on the Central Rail Link and close to the city centre. The land around it is perfectly suited for six-storey-plus developments. However, the lack of wastewater capacity will limit any such development for many years to come.
The irony is that by preserving Auckland's history and heritage in our oldest suburbs, Auckland Council could concentrate its limited infrastructure budget in areas that need it most. Scarce resources such as materials (plasterboard, etc) and labour can be used to build affordable warm houses close to transport links which Auckland desperately needs.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Government is determined to apply a one-size-fits-all approach, riding roughshod over the will of residents of our major cities.
This is against the advice of experienced town planners, civil engineers and heritage architects.
The Government's blind insistence on the maximum intensification will inevitably destroy suburbs that give the city character and, perversely, slow the ability for us to build much-needed affordable homes.
Auckland Council received almost 8000 submissions in the first round of submissions on the NPS-UD which is a record and highlights the size of unease among many thousands of ratepayers in Auckland.
Any threat or move by the Government to appoint a commissioner or to take a council to court should be seen as an extra-judicial abuse of power by our politicians and we should not accept it.
The Government has no right to bully or impose its ideological will upon the residents of New Zealand's major cities, merely because it is politically expedient to do so.
Trevor Purkis. Photo / Supplied
Auckland Council is currently receiving submissions on housing intensification (closing this Thursday, September 29). Have your say by emailing your submission to: unitaryplan@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz. Alternatively, you can use the Auckland Council's online platform www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/planchanges.
Auckland needs a mayor and councillors who will stand up to central government and do what's best for Auckland just as Christchurch and Wellington have done.
Voting is now open and closes on October 8, at noon.
• Trevor Purkis is a retired resident of St Marys Bay.
