What was the biggest issue raised in the submissions

Unsurprisingly it was zones and the Isthmus….

 

 

Last week I had posted that the Unitary Plan Committee agenda had been released. You can see the agenda at the bottom of this post. I took a closer look at the agenda over the weekend to see what we might be in for when it comes to the hearings for the Unitary Plan later this year. Unsurprisingly zoning (residential and business) takes four of the top five spots or six of the top ten submission points fleshed out by the planners from our original submissions. While zones do take the top spots it is the Regional Policy Statement (which influences the Auckland and Unitary Plans) that take up four of the top thirty spots but carry the most weight so far.

The Committee Work Programme outlines a potential set of steps the Hearings Panel will work through starting with submission points around the Regional Policy Statement first. Looking at the work program against my own submission it seems I won’t at the hearings myself until next year as I did not make any critics against the Regional Policy Statement.

 

Below is the work programme and the top thirty submission points. Blue is the top five while red highlights submission points covering an aspect of the Regional Policy Statement.

 

Committee Work Programme
19. At this stage it is not possible to confirm an overall work programme for the committee. The work required will become much clearer once the IHP confirms the schedule of topics for pre-hearing meetings and hearings. This having been said, it is anticipated that the IHP will most likely want to consider submissions on the overall structure of the PAUP and the strategic issues contained in the Regional Policy Statement chapter at the outset of the process, before moving on to more detailed topics. It is therefore anticipated that reports to the committee between now and the end of the year will focus on the Regional Policy Statement, and address the council’s overall strategy for topics such as the compact city, the Rural Urban Boundary, economic development, infrastructure, rural Auckland, the coastal environment, the natural environment, historic heritage, climate change and the Treaty of Waitangi.

20. Submissions on the Auckland-wide provisions (e.g. noise, lighting and earthworks), zones and overlays are likely to be considered next, followed by submissions on place-based provisions (e.g. precincts), rezoning requests and designations. It is possible that there could be a departure from this general sequence to enable topics of high public interest, or very straight-forward topics, to be brought forward in the overall programme.

21. Once an initial programme is confirmed, staff will begin work on a series of presentations for the committee to obtain direction on the council’s response to the submissions. Formal resolutions will often be required, and it is proposed that the scheduled committee meetings commence as workshops before moving into the formal meeting format to enable this.

22. After initial pre-hearing meetings, it is possible that some topics may move on to formal mediation prior to the hearings. The IHP is in the process of appointing qualified mediators. In these cases, it will be important to set out the parameters within which council planning staff are able to agree to amendments to the PAUP. In some cases it may be appropriate for members of the committee to be delegated the authority to attend mediation and agree to amendments discussed during mediation.

Submission Topics
23. In order to give the committee an early sense of the issues raised in submissions, a statistical count of the number of points raised against the main topics in the submissions coding framework referred to earlier in this report is included as Attachment 2. The top 30 topics by number of points raised are as follows:

Topic	Number of Submission Points
Rezoning – Central / Isthmus	8234
Residential zones – General	5212
Rezoning – South	4281
Rezoning – North and Islands	3193
Urban growth	2660
Transport – Auckland-wide provisions	2084
Rezoning – West	1947
Business zones – General	2205
Overlay – Special character areas – Business and residential	1916
Overlay – Historic heritage	1648
Volcanic view shafts survey coordinates	1377
Out of scope	1316
Regional Policy Statement – Mana Whenua	1263
Regional Policy Statement – Historic heritage, special character and natural heritage	1217
Definitions	1174
General provisions	1109
Regional Policy Statement – Issues	1043
Subdivision – Rural zones	1027
Subdivision – General	824
Rural zones – General	805
Overlay – pre-1944 demolition controls	755
Changes to the Rural Urban Boundary	750
Overlay – Lakes, rivers and streams and wetland and management areas	748
Public Open Space zone – General	736
Cultural impact assessment and accidental discovery protocols	711
Precincts – Devonport Peninsula	683
Stormwater	658
Overlay – Sites and Places of Value to Mana Whenua	655
Precincts – Bayswater	643
Regional Policy Statement – Economic / Business / Infrastructure / Energy /Transport	638

 

The Unitary Plan Agenda

 

My own submission to the Unitary Plan

 

The Unitary Plan Committee meets tomorrow at 1:30pm to discuss the agenda. Depending on a couple of things prior I will try to be at that Committee doing my usual live Tweeting service from the meeting. I will post an update about that tomorrow morning.

Update: Sorry folks I will not be Tweeting live from the Unitary Plan Committee tomorrow.

 

Access to the Original Submissions and the Summary of Decisions Report

From the Unitary Plan Agenda

Accessing Original Submissions and the Summary of Decisions Requested Report
8. The summary report will contain over 100,000 individual requests for decisions on the PAUP. In order to make such a complex report meaningful, each point made in a submission is coded to a theme and topic, and in some cases, a sub-topic. The coding framework is included as Attachment 2. When published on the council website, submitters and others will be able to view individual reports for each topic (and sub-topic) and a summary of all of the decisions requested by each submitter. Scanned copies of the actual submissions themselves will also be available on the website. The number of staff assigned to the Unitary Plan enquiries team will be increased during the further submission period to assist people in finding the information they are after. 9. Given the volume of submissions, it is recommended that the summary report is made available at all council libraries (excluding those with insufficient display space), local board offices and main service centres. In terms of the submissions themselves, is recommended that they are only made available on the council website.
10. The estimated difference in cost of the recommended option versus an alternative of providing hard copies of the summary report in all council libraries, local board offices and service centres, and copies of the original submissions, is approximately $24,000 versus $905,000.
11. The key point to note is that under the recommended option, someone who wants the council to provide a hard copy of a submission or submissions can request this via the Unitary Plan enquiries line or email. The standard council printing costs would apply.

 

So the summary report will be at libraries, Local Board offices and service centres but not the original submissions themselves.

 

The second submission round is due to start early to mid June and will be open for a period of 30 working days or six weeks.